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QUANTUM Meruit, called alfo an njfumpjit, in Law, 

 an atlioii upon llic cafL-, grouiick'd upon a neceility to pay a 

 ma: for doing any thing fo much as it defcrvcs or merits. 



This valuation of his trouble is fubmitted to the deter- 

 mination of a jury ; who will aflefs fuch a fum in damages 

 as they tliinic he really merited. 



Quantum Vnlhat, or an implied affumpfit, is where 

 goods and wares fold, are delivered by a tradefman at no 

 certain price, or to be paid for them as much as they are 

 worth in general ; then quantum valebat, or an aftion on the 

 cafe, lies, and the plainlift is to aver them to be worth fo 

 much ; fo where the law obliges one to furnifh another with 

 goods or provifions, as an innkeeper his gueits, &c. 



QUANTZ, JoiiN Joachim, in Biography, chamber 

 mulician to Frederic II. king of PrufTia, to whom he had 

 been flute-mafter before his accefiion to the crown. Quantz 

 was born at Oberfchedcn, a village in the eleftorate of 

 Hanover, in 1697. His father, who was a blackfmith, 

 obliged him to work at the anvil before he was nine years 

 old ; which muft have afforded him an early opportunity of 

 making the famous Pythagorean experiment, mentioned by 

 Jamblichus (de Vit. Pythag.), and by all the mufical writers 

 of antiquity. Indeed, the ear of our young Ardalus had 

 been already formed, in his excurfions with his brother, a 

 village mulician, who ufed to play about the country on 

 holydays and feflivals, whom he accompanied upon thefe 

 occafions, on the bafe-viol, when but eight years old, and 

 without knowing a note of mulic ; but this performance, 

 bad as it was, pleafed him ib much, that he determined to 

 choofe mufic for his profeHion ; though his father, who died 

 when he was only ten years of age, recommended to him, 

 on his death-bed, to continue in the honourable profeffion 

 of his anceftors. 



Quantz, after loiing his father, had no other friends to 

 depend upon for counfcl and proteftion, than two uncles, 

 who lived at Merfeburg in Saxony ; and thefe, fending fur 

 him, gave him the choice of their feveral profeffions, the one 

 being a taylor, and the other a hmjlpfeifer, or town-wait. 



Upon this occafion, the paflion for mufic in the young 

 Quantz overpowered all other confi derations, and, prefer- 

 ing the fiddle-ftick to the anvil or (hears, he bound himfelf 

 apprentice to his uncle, the mufician, for five years ; but 

 this uncle dying three months after, he was transferred to 

 his fon-in-law, Fleifchhack, who was of the fame profeilion ; 

 and it was under him that he firft pratlifed the violin, an 

 initrument to which his inclination at this time impelled liini, 

 preferably to any other. 



Soon after this, however, he praftifed the hautbois, and 

 the trumpet, with which inftruments, and the violin, he 

 chiefly filled up the term of his apprenticefiiip ; but as a 

 true town mufician, in Germany, is expected to play upon 

 all kinds of inftruments, he had been obhged, occafi,onally, 

 to apply himfelf, during this period, to the fackbut, cornet, 

 bafe-viol, French horn, common flute, balloon, viol da 

 gamba, and the lord knows how many more. Thefe were 

 in the way of bufinefs, but for pleafure, he now and then 

 took leiions on the harpfichord, of the organift Kiefewetter, 

 who was likevvife his relation ; by which he laid the firft found- 

 ation of his knowledge in harmony, and love for compofition. 



Luckily for Quantz, his mafter, Fleifchhack, was not, 

 like other country muficians, fond only of old, dry, ftiff, 

 and tallelefs compofitions, but had fufficient difceriiment to 

 choofe his pieces out of the neweft and beft produftions of 

 the times, by Telemann, Melchoir, Hofmann, and Heine- 

 ehen, which were publiflied at Leipfic ; from the perufal, 

 and praftice of which, our young performer derived great 

 advantage. 



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The duke of Merfeburg's band not being very numerouj, 

 the town-waits, at this time, were often called in, to aflift 

 at the mufical performances, both of court and chapel. 

 Here Quantz frequently heard foreigners play and fing, in 

 a manner far fuperior to any profeflora whom he had hitherto 

 met with, which excited in him a itroug delire to travel. 

 Drefden and Berlin were at this time the moft renowned 

 cities in Germany, for the cultivation of mufic, and the 

 number of able muficians. He eagerly wilhed to vifit one 

 of thofe cities, but was deftitute of the means. However, 

 he now began to feel his llrength, and trufting to his feet 

 and his fiddle, he boldly fet on for Drefden. 



It was in the year 17 14 that he arrived in that city. His 

 firft entrance was not aufpicious, being wholly unable to 

 procure employment : on this account, he made an excurfion 

 to Radeburg, where a journeyman fiddler being wanting, he 

 entered into the fervice of the town mufician. Knoll; but 

 alas! he was fooii driven from this poll, by the fatal acci- 

 dent of the town being burnt down by lightning. Again 

 reduced to the ftate of a fugitive, and a wanderer, he levied 

 contributions round the country by the power of his violin, 

 which was now his principal inftrument, till he reached 

 Pirna. 



Here, deftined ftill to be fervus fervorum, he could pro- 

 cure no other means of exercifing his profeilion, than by ac- 

 cepting the office of deputy to a fick journeyman mufician 

 of the town. It was during this time, that he firft faw 

 Vivaldi's concertos for the violin, which were fo congenial 

 to his own feelings and ideas of perfeftion, that he made 

 them his model as long as he continued to praClife that in- 

 ftrument. 



Still regarding Drefden as his centre, he eagerly accepted 

 an offer that was made to him, of being temporary afliftant 

 there, to one of the town-waits, who was then ill ; an em- 

 ployment which he preferred, for the opportunities it af- 

 forded him of hearing good mufic and good muficiarts, to 

 the more honourable poft of being the beft of bad muficians 

 at Berenburg, where he might have been appointed firft 

 violin, with a good falary. 



His fecond arrival at Drefden was in the year 1 716, 

 where he foon difcovei-ed that it was not fufficient for a 

 mufician to be able to execute the mere notes which a com- 

 pofer had fet on paper ; and it was now that he firft began 

 to be fenfible of the exiftence of tafte and expreflion. 



Augullus II. was at this time king of Poland, and 

 eleftor of Saxony, and the orcheftra of this prince at Dref- 

 den was in a flouriftiing condition ; however, the ftyle which 

 had been introduced there, by the concert-mafter Volumier, 

 was French ; but Pifendel, who fucceeded him, introduced 

 a mixed tafte, partly French, and partly Italian, which he 

 afterwards brought to fuch perfection, that Quantz declares, 

 he never heard a better band in all his future travels. 



No orcheftra in Europe could now boaft of fo many able 

 profeftbrs, as that of the eleftor of Saxony, among whom, 

 were Pifendel and Veracini, on the viofin ; Pantaleone He- 

 benftreit, on the pantaleone ; Weifs, on the lute ; Richter, 

 on the hautbois ; and Buffardin, on the German flute ; not 

 to mention feveral excellent performers on the violoncello, 

 bafl'oon, French horn, and double-bafe. 



Upon hearing thefe great performers, Quantz was filled 

 with fuch wonder, and pofieiled of fuch a rage for improve- 

 ment, that he laboured inceffantly to render himfelf worthy 

 of a place among inch honourable aflbciates. 



For, nowever prejudiced he may have been in favour of 



his own reputable calling of kunftpfeifer, he began now juft 



to think it poffible for him to be prevailed upon, to relin- 



quifti that part of it, at leaft, which required Rim to play 



D d 2 country 



