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. 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.

As a sourcebook on cultural background and on such figures as patrons, publishers and performers who flit through the background of the lives of the great Vienna-based composers, this study is invaluable. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *
David Wyn Jones's stupendous study manages to have the reader learn anew many facets of the seemingly standard musical fare of classical music in Vienna...rich material that is presented in such a persuasive and superbly written manner that the work will reward the reader with a new and comprehensive perspective. * JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN STUDIES *
David Wyn Jones's triumphant volume tells the story of musical Vienna...the thoroughness of his research has resulted in vivid and compelling portraits of Vienna...and Jones proves an impeccably informed and wry chronicler of the fortunes of the City of Music. * GRAMOPHONE *
A detailed scholarly work...making it essential reading for students and scholars of Western music history but also for a wide audience interested in cultural and political history. * NOTES: THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION *
David Wyn Jones created an essentially new genre with his eminently readable, yet strictly scholarly book. * KLIÓ *
David Wyn Jones explores the culture of that vibrant musical city in three very different contexts. 1700 is the period which will catch most of us out, but even the more familiar 1800 of Beethoven and the 1900 of Mahler yield fascinating insights. * BIRMINGHAM POST *
This is the first book to examine Vienna's various political, historical, and economic challenges, and how these issues affected the city's musical heritage. Jones acknowledges the insufficiency of the customary labels of the periods, and he provides some additional brief guideposts and signifiers to give the reader a clearer picture of the changes in the city of Vienna from the 18th century onward. * CHOICE *
[Jones's book] is absolutely packed with interesting information. We see the development of all aspects of Viennese society through the prism of musical life. The fascinating, hidden history of women in Viennese music is discussed - a revelation in itself; the development of music making through Imperial private concerts to public concerts sponsored through the aristocracy and then by the middle class. . . . The stories are endlessly fascinating, thoroughly researched and well worth the read. -- Andrew Lorenz * Stringendo *