Quantz and Agricola: A Literary Collaboration

According to the flautist Johann George Tromlitz (1791 and 1800), Johann Joachim Quantz's Versuch einer Anweisung, die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (1752) contained errors about the flute that could not have originated with Quantz. In 1800, Johann August Eberhard claimed it to be "reliably known" that Quantz relied on the pen of Johann Friedrich Agricola. Such a collaboration seems certain. Whereas the Berlin court composer Agricola had all the advantages of an upper-class education and published extensively, but usually anonymously, Quantz rose from humble circumstances to court positions. His autobiography omits any mention of book learning. Members of his class rarely had access to any but the most elementary education. The present article considers various factors pointing to Agricola as not only a collaborator in Quantz's book, but also the contributor of passages that were foreign to Quantz's experience, such as the detailed knowledge of German schools and universities, vocal practice, and Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard fingering.