The five composers represented in this series collectively capture the abundant variety of late eighteenth-century musical life. C.P.E. Bach and J.C. Bach, once regarded primarily as successors to their father J. S. Bach and as ’pre-classical’ forerunners to Haydn and Mozart, are now central figures in their own right; Gluck continues to be considered a pivotal contributor to the history of opera; Haydn, the beneficiary of an extraordinary increase in scholarly interest in the last half century or so, now occupies a place in classical music’s elite; and Mozart, never out of the public eye since his death, remains a touchstone of musical greatness. Scholarly interest in these five composers has manifested itself in different ways over time, and the volumes in this series feature a selection of the key contributions to the secondary literature published during the last 40 years. The essays reflect principal areas of scholarly orientation and academic and historical context; priority has been given to articles published in English, but a few seminal contributions appear either in a foreign language or in new, previously unpublished translations. Each volume editor is a leading authority in the field and contributes an extended introduction which situates the contents of each volume in broad scholarly contexts. This series enhances appreciation of C.P.E. Bach, J.C Bach, Gluck, Haydn and Mozart, and of the environments in which they worked and the musical cultures in which they flourished, and stimulates further engagement with the extensive secondary literature, as well as providing scholars, students and libraries with an indispensable reference source.
