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.  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.  The great opera enembles, the Cminor mass, the finale of the
"jupiter" would not have been possible without Mozart's knowledge of Bach.
Mozart's knowledge of Bach"s music was very limited because many great
masterpieces were only rediscovered in the ninteenth century.  (Too bad he
never saw or heard the Bminor mass!) But what he did know of Bach affected
him profoundly.  Beethoven, Schumann,Mendelssohn,Chopin,Liszt, and others
learned the Well Tempered Clavier as children.Beethoven, in his late music
was a great contrapuntalist and Mendelssohn's counterpoint was certainly
good.  Schumann and Liszt were less concerned with counterpoint but
nonetheless gained valuable experience from Bach.  Charles Rosen, in his
book "The Rromantic Generation", says that Chopin was the greatest master
of counterpoint since Mozart.  Although Chopin was not interested in canon
and fugue his music has a contrapuntal texture to it that is subtle and
smooth.  Furthermore Chopin used the Well Tempered Clavier as a model when
composing his etudes.  I welcome any further comments on this subject.

Jeffrey Langlois
Jacksonville, Florida