Re: Is Bach's music ahead of OUR time?

sagespath <sagespath@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote...

> From earlier composers (Palestrina and Frescobaldi to Buxtehude) Bach
> learned rigorous craftsmanly standards that were later codified into
> the five species of counterpoint in 'Gradus ad Parnassum' of J.Fux, a
> Viennese kapellmeister.  This manual was assimilated later by Haydn,
> Mozart and Beethoven and some later composers.  I learned it from
> Normand Lockwood (1906-2002) who studied with Respighi.

Apparently, Bach himself didn't much care for it. C.P.E. Bach, who never
had a composition teacher other than his father, wrote about his practice
in teaching composition:

"In der Composition gieng er gleich an das Nützliche mit seinen Scholaren,
mit hinweglassung aller der trockenen Arten von Contrapuncten, wie sie in
Fuxen u. anderen stehen." (Bach-Dokumente III/803)

My translation:

"In [teaching] composition, he immediately started his pupils on
practical work, leaving out all the dry distinctions between types of
counterpoint, as they can be found in Fux and other authors."