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