“The Thirty Years War (1618–48) had resulted in the Hapsburgs taking over the kingdom of Bohemia, but it was impossible to suppress the Czech love for music, a fact exploited by the Austrian nobles who filled their new Bohemian estates with musical talent. Once government had been transferred to Vienna, many Czech musicians moved away from their homeland to find work. As one Czech historian put it, ‘[A] lmost all the musical sources which welled up from the soil of Bohemia sped by the shortest course to join the main stream of the world’s music.’ … Some went to Vienna itself: Bárta, Fiala, Vent, Koželuh, Vanhal and the Vranickýs, but some went to Berlin, others to Mannheim, while Mysliveček made his home in Italy.” – Peter Avis