Harry White is Professor of Music at University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He is widely acclaimed as the foremost cultural historian of music in Ireland.

Harry White has the unusual and idiosyncratic ability to link cultural debates about servitude and autonomy to very specific moments in the music of three of the greatest musical figures of the eighteenth century. He not only achieves the seemingly impossible task of integrating J. S. Bach and Handel into one discussion, but goes even further by introducing Fux, a figure who had the tenacity to derive creative capital from the highest degree of musical servitude. We learn about political power, religious prescription, drama, poetry, and the emerging power of autonomous musical works-all articulated with a literary flair that is rare in musicological discourse.

• Preface & Acknowledgements Introduction: Servitude, Autonomy and the European Musical ImaginationChapter 1: The Minstrelsy of Heaven: Servility, Freedom and the Dynastic Style Chapter 2: The Virtuoso of Submissiveness: Fux and the Concept of AuthorityChapter 3: The Steward of Unmeaning Art: Bach and the Musical SubjectChapter 4: 'A Darkness Which Might be Felt': Handel, Fux and the OratorioChapter 5: Steps to Parnassus: Fux, Caldara and BachConclusion: Well, well, well: Fux, Bach and Handel Select BibliographySelect Index

Harry White is Professor of Music at University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He is widely acclaimed as the foremost cultural historian of music in Ireland.

Harry White has the unusual and idiosyncratic ability to link cultural debates about servitude and autonomy to very specific moments in the music of three of the greatest musical figures of the eighteenth century. He not only achieves the seemingly impossible task of integrating J. S. Bach and Handel into one discussion, but goes even further by introducing Fux, a figure who had the tenacity to derive creative capital from the highest degree of musical servitude. We learn about political power, religious prescription, drama, poetry, and the emerging power of autonomous musical works-all articulated with a literary flair that is rare in musicological discourse.

• Preface & Acknowledgements Introduction: Servitude, Autonomy and the European Musical ImaginationChapter 1: The Minstrelsy of Heaven: Servility, Freedom and the Dynastic Style Chapter 2: The Virtuoso of Submissiveness: Fux and the Concept of AuthorityChapter 3: The Steward of Unmeaning Art: Bach and the Musical SubjectChapter 4: 'A Darkness Which Might be Felt': Handel, Fux and the OratorioChapter 5: Steps to Parnassus: Fux, Caldara and BachConclusion: Well, well, well: Fux, Bach and Handel Select BibliographySelect Index