The image of Vienna as a musical city is a familiar one. This book
explores the history of music in Vienna, focussing on three different
epochs, 1700, 1800 and 1900.
The image of Vienna as a musical city is a familiar one. Vienna has long
been associated with many of the most significant composers in Western
music - from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, through the Strauss
family, Brahms, Bruckner and Wolf, to Mahler, Lehár, Schoenberg and
Webern. Today, venerable institutions like the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Staatsoper and the Vienna Boys' Choir, together with the
shared pride of residents and visitors in its musical inheritance,
ensure that the image of a musical city is undimmed.
This book explores the history of music in Vienna, focussing on three
different epochs, 1700, 1800 and 1900, an approach which allows the very
different relationships between music and society that existed in each
of these periods to be distinguished. Patronage, social function and
audience are key considerations, set within wider political and cultural
developments. The volume is populated by emperors, princes, performers,
publishers and writers as well as composers, and deals with
institutional and commercial characteristics alongside representative
individual works. Music in Vienna focusses on the political and social
role of music, broadening our understanding of the city as a musical
capital. It will appeal to a wide readership, including music historians
and political, cultural and social historians, as well as the interested
general reader.
DAVID WYN JONES is Professor of Music at Cardiff University.
