Favorable judgment of a work of art, or of a man, usually means that the work of art, or a record of the man, will be preserved for future generations to judge for themselves. An unfavorable judgment may result in a richly deserved obscurity or an irreplaceable loss, unless favorable circumstances combine to preserve the evidence for a more perspicacious generation. One can be forgiven if he distrusts history's judgment; mistakes which have been corrected are legion (the case of J. S. Bach comes most vividly to mind) and skepticism is warranted unless or until the facts are available for confirmation. It is difficult to explain the paucity of information about Jacques-Christophe Naudot, Not that he is another J. S. Bach; neither Fleury, who made the first serious effort to revive interest in his music in the early 1920's, nor Ruf, who has done much in this regard recently, nor this writer makes any such claim. He does not, however, deserve the obscurity that has been his lot. If his music is not always profound, it nevertheless has both intrinsic and historical value, and some of his works reveal considerable contrapuntal skill. It may be that Naudot stood in the …

This study has two divisions: Part I, an historical and analytical summary of the emergence and development of the divertimento and the serenade in the eighteenth century, and Part II, the culmination of these structures in the works of W. A. Mozart. Two primary purposes are envisioned: 1) to further our knowledge of how German Gesellshafts-musik evolved toward its peak in the second half of the eighteenth century, and 2) to furnish a useful analytical handbook of Mozart's works in these genres.

The subject of the present study, Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini, MS Basevi 2439, abbreviated Florence 2439,1 contains secular and sacred vocal music of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with texts in French, Dutch, Italian, and Latin.