The Triumph of Music

Historians and others interested in sampling a different angle on the modern history of Europe will find this book rewarding. It is thorough in treatment, richly informative and widely sourced. It explains, often in dramatic style, the interrelationship of musical and political developments—mainly but not exclusively in the huge, culturally complex and densely-populated region which had the Germanic states at its geopolitical core. It is profusely illustrated with eight pages of colour plates and dozens of monochrome pictures, all expertly selected and relevantly positioned. Its treatment of technological issues in music-production (Ch. 4) is outstandingly useful for those, as this reviewer, with no scientific background. It is, moreover, the first history of music which, while placing its affective subject centre-stage, seeks constantly to contextualise its internal vicissitudes and external influences. Above all, it foregrounds the importance of music's sponsors and consumers. In effect, this reduces the role of ‘the creative process’. Although the order of things indicated by the book's sub-title implies that this may not have been his intention, the de-centring of ‘the lone genius’ is an overdue and undevout consummation, and one much to be welcomed

Aesthetics · Art · Consummation · Genius · Literature · Media studies · Musical · Order (exchange · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Subject (documents · Visual arts · Computer Science · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Law

• Beethoven and the Sound of Revolution in Vienna, 1792–1814

  Open Access•Rhys Dafydd Jones, Rhys Jones•The Historical Journal•2014

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