The Famously Little-Known Gottlieb Muffat

Gottlieb Muffat (1690–1770) is considered the most successful composer of keyboard music of J. S. Bach's generation to have worked in Vienna. His reputation is based on (1) the corpus of extant works, which is significantly larger than those of his Viennese contemporaries, including his teacher J. J. Fux (ca.1660–1741); (2) the dissemination of Muffat's music during his lifetime; (3) his financial success; and (4) G. F. Handel's extensive borrowings from his music. Yet despite his eminence, little is known of Muffat's life. This chapter evaluates the influence of family background, cultural ties, and social spheres on Muffat's activities as a composer, and draws comparisons with musicians working at the same time outside Habsburg domains, including J. S. Bach.