The subject-matter, we have said, became more important; it differed also in character.  The themes of Emanuel Bach, for the most part, seem to be evolved from harmonic progressions and groupings of notes; those of his successors, rather the source whence springs melody and figuration.  The one uttered broken phrases; the others, complete musical sentences.  Italian fashion prevailed during the second half of the eighteenth century much as it did in the first.  The simple charm and warmth of the music of the violin-composers had penetrated the contrapuntal crust which covered Emanuel Bach’s heart; and the feeling that he could never hope to rival his father must have rendered him all the more willing to yield to it.  But the influence of his father could not be wholly cast aside, and Emanuel was, as it were, drawn in opposite directions; it is really wonderful what he actually achieved.  True lovers of John Sebastian Bach know well that his music, though of a contrapuntal character, is by no means dry; but the formal aspect of it must have made its mark on the son ere he could feel the power, and realise the splendour of his father’s genius.

Haydn and Mozart, on the other hand, were born and bred in the very midst of Italian music.  Of Haydn’s early days we have already spoken, and those of Mozart were not unsimilar.  Otto Jahn, in his life of that composer, says of the father Leopold, that “his ideas were firmly rooted in the traditions of Italian music”; so firmly, indeed, that he could not appreciate the mild innovations of a Gluck.  This paternal influence was deepened, besides, by Mozart’s early visits to Italy.

Then, again, so far as we can make out, the clavier compositions of John Sebastian Bach, and, especially the “Well-tempered Clavier,” were unknown both to Haydn and Mozart in their days of childhood and early manhood.  What a difference in the case of Beethoven, who, it will be remembered, could play the greater number of the forty-eight Preludes and Fugues before he was twelve years of age!  The beauty of Italian music not only impressed Haydn and Mozart, but kindled their creative faculties; while its simple, rhythmical character probably aided them materially in giving utterance to their thoughts and feelings.  Nature had bestowed on them in rich measure the gift of melody, and they soon began to compose.

Emanuel Bach, we have said, was drawn in two opposite directions.  Haydn and Mozart, though they were spared this dual influence, had, however, to face a difficulty.  They found a form ready to hand, yet one which, as we have attempted to show, required modifications of various kinds.  The former had to make the old fit in with the new; but the latter, the new with the old.  Hence their inspiration was handicapped.  They were to some extent constructing as well as creating; and then their sense of order, balance, and proportion was so strong, that they often turned out movements more remarkable for their clearness of form than for the strength of their contents.