Today his music has been rediscovered and he is acknowledged as one of the most important and influential musicians of the German-speaking countries in the 18th century. The most recent research on his life and music are featured in this article by Daniel Zuloaga.

“Weiss is considered the most prolific composer for the lute. An amalgam of French and Italian styles, the literally hundreds of solo pieces he wrote for the lute are part of multi-movement sonatas based on stylized French dances”, Zuloaga writes in his essay. By the time of his death the rise of the guitar precipitated the decline of the lute, as had already happened in Italy and France.

But his solo work continued to be admired, and the lute was still used until the early 19th century in some court circles and in domestic settings to accompany singers. Jean-François Lattarico writes on German baroque opera in the 17th and 18th centuries, tracing the genre from its origins in 1597 to the advent of Mozart. During this period not just music but also cultural life in cities such as Dresden, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Mannhein and Hamburgo were also fundamental, as were the political and religious circumstances that emerged in Germany in those years of convulsive history.

Juan Ruiz Jiménez has written a documented essay entitled “Vanitas sonora” in which he makes interesting observations on music associated with death rites in the Spanish society of the Renaissance, the evolution of funeral liturgy and the Requiem Mass, as well as specific repertoires used for this purpose. And Graham Lock interviews Winton Dean, a legendary figure of world musicology and true guardian of Handel. At 92, Dean has a prodigious mind and enviable sense of humor, and continues working and pressing on with his monumental study of the German-born composer. For Goldberg it is an honor to present this interview to its readers.