This volume brings together fifteen essays by scholars which were first presented at a conference held in Oxford in September 1997 to mark the bicentenary of Schubert's birth. This collection of essays examines a variety of aspects of cultural and social life in Austria in the first half of the nineteenth century but also explores the perpetuating of myths and stereotypes derived from those years and the ways in which the Biedermeier period continued to influence later generations, not least in their repeated attempts to create an image of the good old days based on the age of Schubert before the chaos of the 1848 revolution and the construction of the RingstraBe. Major figures from literature and culture are well represented (Grillparzer, Nestroy, Stifter, Bauernfeld) but an important focus of the volume is on lesser known writers who were responsible for the creation of the Biedermeier myth: Frankl, Bartsch, Lux and others. A further group of essays is concerned with general topics such as Austrian identity, the existence of a specifically Austrian strand of philosophy, and changing attitudes towards nature.

Carl Czerny was a highly successful composer of popular piano music, and his pedagogical works remain fundamental to the training of pianists. But Czerny's reputation in these areas has obscured the remarkable breadth of his activity, and especially his work as a composer of serious music. This collection aims to address this.

Recent and increasing interest in art market studies—the dealers, mediators, advisors, taste makers, artists, etc.—indicate that the transaction of art and decorative art is anything but linear. Taking as its point of departure two of the most active agents of the late nineteenth century, Wilhelm von Bode and Stefano Bardini, the essays in this volume also look beyond, to other art market individuals and their vast and frequently interconnected, social and professional networks. Newly told history taken from rich business, epistolary and photographic archives, these essays examine the art market, within a broader and more complex context. In doing so, they offer new areas of inquiry for mapping of works of art as they were exchanged over time and place.

"This is the book on porcelain we have been waiting for. . . . A remarkable achievement."—Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes A sweeping cultural and economic history of porcelain, from the eighteenth century to the present Porcelain was invented in medieval China—but its secret recipe was first reproduced in Europe by an alchemist in the employ of the Saxon king Augustus the Strong. Saxony’s revered Meissen factory could not keep porcelain’s ingredients secret for long, however, and scores of Holy Roman princes quickly founded their own mercantile manufactories, soon to be rivaled by private entrepreneurs, eager to make not art but profits. As porcelain’s uses multiplied and its price plummeted, it lost much of its identity as aristocratic ornament, instead taking on a vast number of banal, yet even more culturally significant, roles. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it became essential to bourgeois dining, and also acquired new functions in insulator tubes, shell casings, and teeth. Weaving together the experiences of entrepreneurs and artisans, state bureaucrats and female consumers, chemists and peddlers, Porcelain traces the remarkable story of “white gold” from its origins as a princely luxury item to its fate in Germany’s cataclysmic twentieth century. For three hundred years, porcelain firms have come and gone, but the industry itself, at least until very recently, has endured. After Augustus, porcelain became a quintessentially German commodity, integral to provincial pride, artisanal industrial production, and a familial sense of home. Telling the story of porcelain’s transformation from coveted luxury to household necessity and flea market staple, Porcelain offers a fascinating alternative history of art, business, taste, and consumption in Central Europe.

A new wave of scholarship inspired by the ways the writers and musicians of the long nineteenth century themselves approached the relationship between music and words.

Historians are increasingly looking beyond the traditional, and turning to visual, oral, aural, and virtual sources to inform their work. The challenges these sources pose require new skills of interpretation and require historians to consider alternative theoretical and practical approaches. In order to help historians successfully move beyond traditional text, Sarah Barber and Corinna Peniston-Bird bring together chapters from historical specialists in the fields of fine art, photography, film, oral history, architecture, virtual sources, music, cartoons, landscape and material culture to explain why, when and how these less traditional sources can be used. Each chapter introduces the reader to the source, suggests the methodological and theoretical questions historians should keep in mind when using it, and provides case studies to illustrate best practice in analysis and interpretation. Pulling these disparate sources together, the introduction discusses the nature of historical sources and those factors which are unique to, and shared by, the sources covered throughout the book. Taking examples from around the globe, this collection of essays aims to inspire practitioners of history to expand their horizons, and incorporate a wide variety of primary sources in their work.

A study of songs composed by Schubert in the final six years of his life.

In 850 analytical articles, this two-volume set explores the developments that influenced the profound changes in thought and sensibility during the second half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century. The Encyclopedia provides readers with a clear, detailed, and accurate reference source on the literature, thought, music, and art of the period, demonstrating the rich interplay of international influences and cross-currents at work; and to explore the many issues raised by the very concepts of Romantic and Romanticism.

Designed to provide English readers of German literature the opportunity to familiarize themselves with both the established canon and newly emerging literatures that reflect the concerns of women and ethnic minorities, the Encyclopedia of German Literature includes more than 500 entries on writers, individual work, and topics essential to an understanding of this rich literary tradition. Drawing on the expertise of an international group of experts, the essays in the encyclopedia reflect developments of the latest scholarship in German literature, culture, and history and society. In addition to the essays, author entries include biographies and works lists; and works entries provide information about first editions, selected critical editions, and English-language translations. All entries conclude with a list of further readings.

The Habsburg monarchy was a singular experiment in diversity within the European continent. By the eighteenth century it stretched from the Austrian Netherlands to the Balkans and southern Poland, and south into Italy. Its subjects spoke a number of languages, and while the social and institutional structure of these lands shared common features, there were also substantial differences among them. Was the Habsburg monarchy therefore an empire like those of Great Britain, France or Spain? Drawing upon modern theoretical perspectives on European expansion to answer this question, Paula Sutter Fichtner argues that the Habsburg holdings did indeed constitute a form of European imperialism, and that they are best understood in such terms. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490-1848 - Examines the role of the interraction between Habsburg rulers, territorial estates, and religious institutions in the expansion of the empire - Explores the reorientation of these relationships under the impact of the European Enlightenment, the rationalization of dynastic government under Empress Maria Theresa and her son, Joseph II, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of nationalism - Assesses the effect of the Revolutions of 1848 on the strength of the connections between the crown and its nobles, as well as its ties to its ecclesiastical elites and the bourgeoisie - Discusses the parallel developments in cultural affairs as the coherence of a world outlook dominated by Catholicism gave way to linguistic and cultural particularism Incorporating the latest research, this broad-ranging study is an essential guide to one of Europe's most powerful and important dynasties.