Forkel edited the Wohltemperirte Clavier for Hoffmeister in 1801.
The rule is not in the Rules and Instructions already referred to.
Suite No. 6, in D minor (P. bk. 204 p. 84).
* Many people hold the opinion that the best melody is one which the largest number of persons can understand and sing. But this cannot be admitted, for if it were true, popular airs which are sung up and down the country by all classes, even the lowest, must be accounted the finest and best. I should be inclined to state the proposition conversely: a melody which attracts everybody is invariably of the most ordinary kind. In that form the statement might, perhaps, pass as a principle.
Forkel alludes to the Goldberg Variations (P. bk. 209).
P. bks. 205, 206.
P. bks. 203, 204.
P. bk. 207.
Bach wrote three Suites (Partita) and three Sonatas for Solo Violin. They date from about 1720 and are in the keys of G minor, B minor, A minor, D minor, C major, and E major (P. bk. 228). The six Violoncello Suites date from the same period and are in G major, D minor, C major, E flat major, C minor, and D major (P. bks. 238a, 238b).
Reinhard Keiser, b. 1673, d. 1739; scholar of the Leipzig Thomas-schule; settled at Hamburg, 1694; composed a number of Operas, and for a time had a great vogue.