<P> The desire to explore, record and systematize knowledge had a meaningful impact on music publications . Jean - Jacques Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique (published 1767 in Geneva and 1768 in Paris) was a leading text in the late 18th century . This widely available dictionary gave short definitions of words like genius and taste and was clearly influenced by the Enlightenment movement . Another text influenced by Enlightenment values was Charles Burney's A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1776), which was a historical survey and an attempt to rationalize elements in music systematically over time . Recently, musicologists have shown renewed interest in the ideas and consequences of the Enlightenment . For example, Rose Rosengard Subotnik's Deconstructive Variations (subtitled Music and Reason in Western Society) compares Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (1791) using the Enlightenment and Romantic perspectives and concludes that the work is "an ideal musical representation of the Enlightenment". </P> <P> As the economy and the middle class expanded, there was an increasing number of amateur musicians . One manifestation of this involved women, who became more involved with music on a social level . Women were already engaged in professional roles as singers and increased their presence in the amateur performers' scene, especially with keyboard music . Music publishers begin to print music that amateurs could understand and play . The majority of the works that were published were for keyboard, voice and keyboard and chamber ensemble . After these initial genres were popularized, from the mid-century on, amateur groups sang choral music, which then became a new trend for publishers to capitalize on . The increasing study of the fine arts, as well as access to amateur - friendly published works, led to more people becoming interested in reading and discussing music . Music magazines, reviews and critical works which suited amateurs as well as connoisseurs began to surface . </P> <P> The philosophes spent a great deal of energy disseminating their ideas among educated men and women in cosmopolitan cities . They used many venues, some of them quite new . </P> <P> The term "Republic of Letters" was coined in 1664 by Pierre Bayle in his journal Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres . Towards the end of the 18th century, the editor of Histoire de la République des Lettres en France, a literary survey, described the Republic of Letters as being: </P>

Who was considered the hero of the enlightenment