Although defined today almost exclusively by the works of Haydn and Mozart, the classical style in music developed and was shaped through the contributions of many composers. Indeed, the musical production of this rather short epoch was voluminous, with the works of the Viennese masters constituting only a small portion of the total. The remainder was the product of dozens of capable composers working throughout Europe. For modern-day listeners, most are shadowy igures whose contributions remain largely unnoticed and unacknowledged. Characteristically identified as “minor masters” (Kleinmeister) with the implication that they produced more or less uniformly inferior music, the work of these composers has been tacitly relegated to a mass of mediocrity surrounding the period's acknowledged giants. Although the names of some may appear in historical surveys, the music of all but a few has remained unexplored except by a handful of specialists.

Fortunately, this pattern has begun to change in recent years. Curiosity about “the others” has led to performances and recordings of a wider range of the period's music. While many Kleinmeister fail to measure up to the masters of the period, others emerge as not only capable, but often highly imaginative and creative practitioners of the classical style. Although we have not yet discovered another Mozart or Haydn, it is clear that to consign all of their contemporaries to a common group would be a misrepresentation of their abilities.