The Great Transformation of Musical Taste: Concert Programming from Haydn to Brahms

by William Weber

• ISBN13: 9780521882606
• ISBN10: 0521882605
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Grounded in knowledge of thousands of programs, this book examines how musical life in London, Leipzig, Vienna, Boston, and other cities underwent a fundamental transformation in relationship with movements in European politics. William Weber traces how musical taste evolved in European concert programs from 1750 to 1870, as separate worlds arose around classical music and popular songs. In 1780 a typical program accommodated a variety of tastes through a patterned 'miscellany' of genres, held together by diplomatic musicians. This framework began weakening around 1800 as new kinds of music appeared, from string quartets to quadrilles to ballads, which could not easily coexist on the same programs. Utopian ideas and extravagant experiments influenced programming as ideological battles were fought over who should govern musical taste. More than a hundred illustrations or transcriptions of programs enable readers to follow Weber's analysis in detail.

Table of Contents

Illustrations of concert programs	p. ix
Transcriptions of concert programs	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Miscellany and Collegiality, 1750-1800
Concepts and contexts	p. 13
Variations on miscellany	p. 40
Crisis and Experiment, 1800-1848
Musical idealism and the crisis of the old order	p. 85
The rise of the chamber music concert	p. 122
Convention and experiment in benefit and virtuoso concerts	p. 141
Toward classical repertory in orchestral concerts	p. 169
Promenade concerts: rise of the "pops"	p. 208
Founding a New Order, 1848-1875
Classical music achieves hegemony	p. 235
Vocal music for the general public	p. 273
Epilogue: the state of the musical community in 1914	p. 301
Selected bibliography	p. 311
Index	p. 321
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