Overview

In late eighteenth-century Vienna and the surrounding Habsburg territories, over 50 minor-key symphonies by at least 11 composers were written. These include some of the best-known works of the symphonic repertoire, such as Haydn's 'Farewell' Symphony and Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550. The driving energy, intense pathos and restlessness of these compositions demand close attention and participation from the listener, and pose urgent questions about meaning and interpretation.In response to these questions, The Viennese Minor-Key Symphony in the Age of Haydn and Mozart combines historical perspectives with recent developments in music analysis to shed new light on this distinctive part of the repertoire. Through an intertextual, analytical approach, author Matthew Riley treats the minor-key symphony as a subgenre of several strands, reconstructing the compositional world it occupied. His work enables signals to be understood, puts characteristic strategies in clear relief, and ultimately reveals the significance this music held for both composers and listeners of the time. Riley gives us a fresh picture of the familiar masterpieces of Haydn and Mozart, while also focusing on lesser known composers.

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9780199349678

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Reviews

[R]eaders should be grateful for this groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of an era characterized by non-uniform stylistic heterogeneity and change. Riley opens up an important repertoire that has heretofore lacked a coherent theoretical treatment. In the process, he presents a plausible set of compositional options within the constraints of his proposed subgenre, in which rhetorical strategies may be interpreted as helping create marked expressive effects. --Music Theory Online Riley has prompted a rethinking of our knowledge of the use of minor keys in the Classical era, and that is high praise indeed considering how much time scholars have invested in these works already...The fact that Riley was able to find all of these works and digest them in a meaningful way is impressive in its own right. Read Riley's first chapter; if you are still skeptical of his argument, read the rest of the book and watch as his preponderance of evidence piles upon you. --Fontes artis musicae

[R]eaders should be grateful for this groundbreaking contribution to our understanding of an era characterized by non-uniform stylistic heterogeneity and change. Riley opens up an important repertoire that has heretofore lacked a coherent theoretical treatment. In the process, he presents a plausible set of compositional options within the constraints of his proposed subgenre, in which rhetorical strategies may be interpreted as helping create marked expressive effects. --Music Theory Online

Author Information

Matthew Riley is Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham. His research interests include Classical and Romantic instrumental music, music and nationalism, and the music of Edward Elgar.

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