> Bach certainly went much further than nearly any composer in advancing the state of music harmony It's easy to have that impression because JS Bach (justifia

> Bach certainly went much further than nearly any composer in advancing the state of music harmony It's easy to have that impression because JS Bach (justifiably!) looms so enormously over music since then. But it wasn't so much that he advanced the state of harmony as that he was so encyclopedic and powerful in his ability to use the material of his age that he somewhat obscured his source material, rather the way Newton did in classical mechanics. Then his sons basically created the classical style just to get out of his shadow. And for many years JS Bach was far less famous than his sons JC Bach and CPE Bach.