All composers are limited by their era. Technology is part of it. What would Bach have produced if he had sampling? But equally importantly, all composers are

All composers are limited by their era. Technology is part of it. What would Bach have produced if he had sampling? But equally importantly, all composers are limited by only having heard their contemporaries and predecessors. Bach was exposed to a certain set of music. You are exposed to a superset of the music he was exposed to. People heard his music juxtaposed with everything else they had heard. Some of it sounded fresh, some too different to be enjoyed. We hear his music juxtaposed with all the music composed after him, including music composed be people who heard his music and innovated further. That’s the nature of progression. His music, like Mozarts, has timeless beauty. But it will always be “less” in a certain way than the music we hear today.