a few years at
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, he entered the service of Frederick the Great;
and at the court of that monarch he came, at any rate, directly under
Italian influence.

An interesting link between Kuhnau and E. Bach is Mattheson, who
published at Hamburg in 1713 a sonata dedicated to the one who can
best play it (_derjenigen Persohn gewidmet, die sie am besten spielen
wird_). The work itself not being available, the following description
of it by J. Faisst (_Caecilia_, vol. 25, p. 157) may prove
interesting:--"It (_i.e._ the sonata) consists of only one movement,
which, considering its evidently intentional wealth of technique,
might be named a Toccata. But in form this one movement clearly
belongs to the sonata order, and, in fact, holds a middle place
between the tendencies towards sonata-form (the term taken in the
narrower sense of form of one single movement) noticeable in Kuhnau,
and the more developed shape which this form has assumed within recent
times. We have here three sections. In the opening one, the theme,
after its first exposition in the key of G, forms the basis of various
passages, and then appears in the key of the dominant, followed again
by passages of larger extent and richer contents; finally, in
abbreviated form, it reappears in the tonic. The second section
commences in the parallel key, E minor, with passages which recall
those of the first section, and continues with the theme in the same
key; afterwards theme and passages are developed through the keys of A
minor, C major, G major, D major and B minor; in the last, in which
the theme occurs, there is a full close. As third section the first is
taken _Da Capo_." It is evident from a remark made by Mattheson in his
_Der volkommene Capellmeister_, which appeared at Hamburg in 1739,
that some of the sonatas written during the transition period, between
Corelli and E. Bach, are lost, or, at any rate, have not been
discovered.[17] Mattheson says: "During the last years successful
attempts have been made to write sonatas for the clavier (formerly
they were for violins or instruments of that kind); still, up to now,
they have not the right form, and are capable of being touched (_i.e._
played) rather than of touching: they aim at the movement of fingers
rather than of hearts."[18]

A little later than Mattheson (_i.e._ in 1721), Pier Giuseppo Sandoni,
husband of the famous vocalist Cuzzoni, published at London "Sonate
per il Cembalo," dedi