Jeff Langlois initiates a great thread:

>I would like to discuss the importance of J.S.  Bach to later composers.
>Most notably, The Well Tempered Clavier was widley used as a teaching
>device throughout the eighteenth century.

I don't know about "widely." I can't think of any Bach work widely known in
the 18th century, in the sense that Vivaldi's, Handel's, and Telemann's
music was.  Schumann seems to have rediscovered the WTC in the 19th,
famously prescribing one prelude and fugue per day.

>Mozart did not come into contact with these preludes and fugues until he
>was twenty six years old.  But after studying them his counterpoint (which
>was always good) becomes more complex.

This was not his first contact with Bach.  He had previously discovered
cantatas and motets of Bach in one of Bach's churches.  Among the works, he
found the motet "Singet dem Herrn" (for double choir).  He is reported to
have said, "At last!  Someone I can learn from!"

>Beethoven, Schumann,Mendelssohn,Chopin,Liszt, and others learned the Well
>Tempered Clavier as children.Beethoven, in his late music was a great
>contrapuntalist

Yes, but according to his own self, he much preferred (and probably knew
better) Handel.  Beethoven's counterpoint, I agree, becomes amazing in the
late work, but it's not particularly Bachian; to me, it's closer to Handel
-- suggestive, rather than explicit.  Further, he knew counterpoint early
on.

>Schumann and Liszt were less concerned with counterpoint but
>nonetheless gained valuable experience from Bach.

Schumann has some great canonic studies for two pianos, written in homage
to Bach.

Also, don't forget Brahms, for me the great contrapuntal master since J.S.
As a young composer, he spent (if I remember right) a year writing nothing
but canons, fugues, and invertible counterpoint.  It shows up not only in
the usual places (sacred music, organ works), but in places you don't
expect like the finale to the Haydn Variations.

Steve Schwartz