Vienna

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.

Author Biography

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.