The German Lied in the period preceding Mozart is less well-known than that of the florescence under Schubert, Schumann and Wolf. But in Poetry and Song in Late Eighteenth Century Germany (originally published in 1985) Margaret Stoljar shows that the songs composed by C.P.E. Bach and his contemporaries have an interest and allure of their own. She concentrates her analysis on the interplay of poets and musicians, the use made by composers of the work of such distinguished poets as Klopstock, and the specific contribution that music was able to make to the reception of the poetry.

As much a work of social history as of musicology, Poetry and Song in Late Eighteenth Century Germany casts a fascinating light on the leisure of the period and place, as well as on the development of taste and sensibility that prepared the way for Young Werther. The book is illustrated with examples of music.