Music in the Eighteenth Century

Eighteenth Century Music in its cultural, social, and intellectual contexts.

John Rice's Music in the Eighteenth Century takes the reader on an engrossing Grand Tour of Europe's musical centers, from Naples, to London, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, and St. Petersburg ―with a side trip to the colonial New World.  Against the backdrop of Europe's largely peaceful division into Catholic and Protestant realms, Rice shows how "learned" and "galant" styles developed and commingled. While considering Mozart, Haydn, and early Beethoven in depth, he broadens his focus to assess the contributions of lesser-known but significant figures like Johann Adam Hiller, Francois-André Philidor, and Anna Bon.

Western Music in Context: A Norton History comprises six volumes of moderate length, each written in an engaging style by a recognized expert. Authoritative and current, the series examines music in the broadest sense―as sounds notated, performed, and heard―focusing not only on composers and works, but also on broader social and intellectual currents.

John Rice has taught at the University of Washington, Colby College, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Alabama, and the University of Pittsburgh. His writings include Mozart on the Stage, Antonio Salieri and Viennese Opera, and Empress Marie Therese and Music at the Viennese Court, 1792–1807. He is the recipient of the American Musicological Society’s Otto Kinkeldey Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society.

Walter Frisch is H. Harold Gumm/Harry and Albert von Tilzer Professor of Music at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Brahms: The Four Symphonies, The Early Works of Arnold Schoenberg 1903–1908, and German Modernism: Music and the Arts. He is the recipient of two ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.