Musical life in Biedermeier Vienna

the long version

This book examines the impact of the daily life, political climate, and artistic institutions of Vienna on its musicians and musical tastes between 1815 and 1830. Emphasis is given to Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, and Johann Strauss where their careers reflect typically Viennese musical life and when Viennese conventions may explain important turns in their lives. An entire chapter is devoted to the regulation of music by the Austrian government, secret police, and censors. Schubert's near-arrest for his association with radical students and the dispersal of the Ludlamshohle artistic group for suspected revolutionary tendencies are two examples of police intervention into artists' lives, suggesting that political considerations may have had a bearing on the choice of works to be performed or published and on which artists received the support of the state. Succeeding chapters discuss the conventions of Vienna's musical institutions: the theatre, public concerts, salons, the church and the military, as well as popular music (dance hall, tavern).