Whether "Musensitz," "musical university," or "joyful Pleiss-Athens" - Leipzig has been regarded as a unique music metropolis in Europe since the 17th century. This volume illustrates how the city earned this reputation through numerous images, some of which are published for the first time, from the first 700 years of Leipzig's music history. Michael Maul portrays the musicians and composers, presents their works and the circumstances under which they were created, recounts the venues where the music was performed, and examines both the supporters and opponents. This reveals why a Goethe had to praise his Leipzig, why a Bach wrote his major works here, and why the muses have sung, danced, and made music in this charming city of citizens and universities since the early Baroque period, more joyfully than elsewhere: in the St. Thomas Church, the opera house, and the Collegia musica, as well as in the M.