Vienna
A Musical History
Will be published approx. on 31. March 2026
Book
Hardback
350 pages
978-1-009-39946-3 (ISBN)
Description
What is behind Vienna's world-wide reputation as a 'city of music'? Vienna's images of itself and outside opinions of its significance as a musical city capture internal and external preoccupations with the intricate details and ambitious visions that collectively articulate its unique ambience and status, This wide-ranging study of Viennese music, musicians, traditions, institutions and cultures provides a historical background and conceptual framework for understanding the centuries of musical accomplishments that underlie the city's mystique. The book explores questions of identity and place, and local traditions and practices, before considering musical networks, organizations, associations and businesses, and the musicians who thrived in them. Encompassing classical music from medieval liturgy to Mozart, Beethoven's symphonies to Strauss's waltzes, from Schubert to Schoenberg, the city is also well known for its musical theatre, live music in cafes and hostelries, klezmer, jazz, pop, rock, and hip-hop. The story continues.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 250 mm
Width: 175 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
814 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-39946-3 (9781009399463)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
Cambridge University Press
€117.99
Available for download
Person
Simon P. Keefe is J. R. Hoyle Chair of Music at the University of Sheffield. He is the winner of the Emerson Award of the Mozart Society of America (2013); elected life member of the Academy for Mozart Research at the Mozarteum Salzburg (2005); President of the Royal Musical Association; and author of five monographs on Mozart.
Content
List of illustrations; List of tables; List of musical examples; List of contributors; Introduction Simon P. Keefe; Part I. Identity and Place: 1. Music about Vienna and the Viennese in classical, folk and popular traditions Catherine Mayes; 2. Commemorating musicians in Vienna Simon P. Keefe; 3. Ethnographic and exotic elements in Viennese musical culture: stylistic diversity in the capital of a multicultural empire Larry Wolff; Part II. Local Traditions and Instruments: 4. Music and dance Erica Buurman; 5. Private and domestic music-making Nancy November; 6. Operetta in Vienna Lisa Feurzeig; 7. Capturing the past in the present: Viennese instruments, sounds, and Instrument-makers Karina Zybina; Part III. Institutions, Organizations and Venues: 8. Institutions Morten Solvik; 9. Vienna's opera houses and theatres Claudio Vellutini; 10. Concerts and concert venues David Wyn Jones; 11. Music publishing in Vienna Rupert Ridgewell; Part IV. Composers, Performers and Critics: 12. Music and musicians in Vienna from the middle ages to the mid eighteenth century Janet K. Page; 13. Viennese musicians and musical culture in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Simon P. Keefe; 14. Composition in Vienna from the Vormaerz to the Anschluss, 1830-1938 David Brodbeck; 15. Rupture, paradox and continuity: Vienna musical life post-1933 through 1999 Rebecca Schmid; 16. Twenty-first-century Vienna Alexander Carpenter; Guidelines for further reading; Index.