One of the first (and most influential) works of Marpurg was his tract on the Fugue (1753) which is considered one of the oldest sources for the performance practice of J.S. Bach's "Art of the Fugue". His "Handbuch bey dem Generalbasse und der Composition" and the translation of d'Alembert's "Elémens de musique" stand at the beginning of Rameau reception in German harmonic theory. Other works treat questions of instrumental performance, vocal music, music history and mathematical music theory. His journal projects continued to promote the institution of German music criticism in the wake of Mattheson and Scheibe; his "Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst" contains significant contributions to the theory of meter, the esthetics of the ode and other topics of current interest. His manuscript work on the ancient water organ remained unfinished.