Instrumental Music in an Age of Sociability: Haydn, Mozart and Friends

Description

Sociability may be a key term of reference for eighteenth-century studies as a whole, but it has not yet developed an especially strong profile in music scholarship. Many of the associations that it brings do not fit comfortably with a later imperative of individual expression. W. Dean Sutcliffe invites us to face up to the challenge of re-evaluating the communicative rationales that lie behind later eighteenth-century instrumental style. Taking a behavioural perspective, he divides sociability into 'technical' and 'affective' realms, involving close attention both to particular recurring musical patterns as well as to some of the style's most salient expressive attributes. The book addresses a broad span of the instrumental production of the era, with Haydn as the pivotal figure. Close readings of a variety of works are embedded in an encompassing consideration of the reception of this music.

W. Dean Sutcliffe is Professor in the School of Music at the University of Auckland, and co-editor of the journal Eighteenth-Century Music. His research interests focus on the eighteenth century, and publications have covered composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Scarlatti's Spanish contemporary Sebastian de Albero, Boccherini, Mozart, Manuel Blasco de Nebra and above all Haydn. His most recent large-scale publication is an edition of the three string quartets Op. 42 by Adalbert Gyrowetz (2017). He was awarded the Dent Medal for 2009 by the Royal Musical Association.