The Cosmopolitans

Behind seemingly effortless ornamentation, strict rules had to be observed to establish the character, emotion and aesthetics of the music. Johann Sebastian Bach commented that, “It is somewhat strange that German musicians are expected to be capable of performing at once and ex tempore all kinds of music, whether it come from Italy or France, English or Poland”. Travelling musicians and composers pollinated new ideas across cultures but it was through the cosmopolitan Georg Muffat’s seminal work published in four languages, Florilegium primum (1695) and secundum (1698), that musicians became fluent in the language of French and Italian music, and “how to use, with judgment, beautiful decorations and appropriate ornaments, which light up the piece like precious stones”.