Recently while reading a book for a class I came upon the lines:
"It is important to note that the Enlightenment also had powerful artistic and cultural dimensions. Enlightenment philosophers and scientists rubbed shoulders with composers such as Bach, Haydn and Mozart..." The European World 1500–1800 (p. 294). Taylor and Francis.
beyond that, there is virtually no information into the nature of the relationships between the philosophers and the musicians.
I'm just curious as to what the author might consider "rubbing shoulders" or any other insights into the worlds of philosophy and music during the Age of Enlightenment.
I find this statement to be pretty disingenuous. Mozart as an example was born in 1756 which already postdates him from the likes of Locke, Hobbes, and Montesque and though he began composing and performing at a young age, his fame didn't happen until the early 1770's which would make him a contemporary of the likes of Voltaire, Hume, and Diderot, but they were all much older and Mozart's interests were far from political or philosophical.
Bach on the other hand would've been a contemporary of most enlightenment philosophers, but he was a notorious shut in and was not particularly famous in his own time. He mostly composed music for the Lutheran church and never even left his region of Germany. The thought of him having any meaningful communication with the likes of Locke or Voltaire is pretty laughable.
Haydn would've been a more age appropriate contemporary of the later enlightenment philosophers than Mozart, but the majority of his musical career was spent in Vienna as the head of music for the Esterházy royal family. Such a close connection to the aristocracy would likely preclude him from having any open relations with the enlightenment philosophers.
While none of this really says that enlightenment philosophers and composers of the time never met or chatted with each other, it is dubious that the three they picked for that quote are probably the least likely compatriots of the enlightenment. What you have to remember about composers of the time is that most of their funding came either from the church or the aristocracy. This would create a massive conflict on interest. Any musician at the time that publicly sided with the enlightenment would've lost their commissions within the church and royal courts and would've been easily replaced and forgotten. It wasn't until Beethoven that any famous composer really became vocal about any political ideas, and that was because the nouveau riche could afford to attend concerts and composers no longer had to solely rely on the church or the aristocracy to make money by that time.