Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School

For years, historians have described the music of the so-called "Viennese School" as directly descending from German Lutherism up to Bach's death in 1750. In this fascinating book, Daniel Heartz shows how it actually grew out of Italian Catholicism, combined with current French fashions and local traditions. Haydn and Mozart, who stand at the very center of this study, were viewed as the highest peaks on the musical horizon by their contemporaries. It is that world of perception that Professor Heartz recreates, calling upon the visual arts and the architecture of the period to support his thesis. His focus is on music as a part of cultural history in a particular time and place. Stylistic terms and a priori periods mean less to him than the common denominators of geography, the arts, and political history.

The treasure trove of hitherto unseen documents that Professor Heartz uncovered while working in the Viennese archives bears witness to the enormously rich musical life of Vienna during the four decades' reign of the Empress Maria Theresa. This enlightened monarch helped make her capital the musical center of the Western world.

Lavishly illustrated with music examples, black-and-white reproductions, and color plates, this beautiful volume will be of the greatest interest to scholars, cultural historians, and serious music lovers.

1995 / ISBN 0-393-03712-6 / 7" x 9-1/4" / Full color plates, black-and-white illustrations, music examples / 704 pages / MUSIC

• Daniel Heartz, recipient of Guggenheim Fellowships, the Dent Medal, and innumerable scholarly awards, holds the Jerry and Evelyn Hemmings Chamber Chair in Music at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has taught since 1960. Author of several highly praised books and critical editions, he is widely recognized as one of the foremost eighteenth-century scholars in the music world today.