A summary of the early career of Johann Strauss (Father), the wider dance culture in Vienna and the role of music publishers.

The short story remains at heart of southern literature. Anthologies, surveys, and criticism all tout the centrality of the form to the representation of the region. But the short story form does not merely facilitate a focus on diverse, local southern cultures. Because short stories can be easily republished and collected, these “little postage stamps” also allow such diverse, local cultures to circulate broadly. In examining the ways short fictional forms enable access to and communication with far-flung places, this chapter offers case studies of three accomplished short story writers: Kate Chopin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Oscar Cásares. Theirs is a literature of the provinces that is far from provincial – a regional literature par excellence that remains very much engaged with the broader world.

The epilogue draws together the book’s main aims: to define and explore the formal tendencies of Schubert’s lyric teleology; to revive analytical engagement with the composer’s pre-1816 string quartets, and to reflect on analytical methodology. It also considers paths not taken and questions not asked in an attempt both to rationalise the contribution made by the book and to contextualise its findings. Finally, it addresses the lingering question of how impactful Schubert’s instrumental lyricism was, and whether it can be perceived in the music of later nineteenth-century composers. To this end, the chapter considers the music of Brahms (whose debt to Schubert is well documented), Bruckner (who knew Schubert’s music intimately and whose compositions were the subject of similar criticisms of formal redundancy and seemingly disjunctive and self-contained themes), and Chopin (in whose early work we see formal strategies akin to those of Schubert’s lyric form). These correspondences suggest that Schubert’s lyric teleology can be understood as prescient of a distinct turn to Romantic form, and provide recommendations for further study.

In this chapter, pianos made by firms such as Broadwood, Érard, Graf, Pleyel, Stein, Streicher, and others owned or used by composers and virtuosi such as Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Schumann, and others are discussed and technically described. Histories of the piano making firms are provided.

Like many other nineteenth-century composers, Brahms was often approached to edit other composers’ works. Publishers strove to attract famous musicians such as Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and Julius Rietz for editing work, alongside music scholars, not least because their names attracted buyers. Brahms’s own preference as editor was to remain anonymous, and we also do not know exactly why he undertook this work. The demands on time (studying the sources, comparing texts, revising, corresponding with the publisher, etc.) were considerable, especially alongside his own daily work of composition and concert duties. Furthermore, the pecuniary rewards were limited [see Ch. 8 ‘Finances’]. Thus, in relation to Brahms’s edition of Mozart’s Requiem, he was told on 12 February 1876 that he, like all the other editors, would have to be content with a ‘modest compensation of 1.50 Marks per score plate’.

During his lifetime, Brahms accumulated a sizeable fortune. Although the early days were not without difficulties, his finances then accumulated steadily and virtually uninterruptedly. When he died in 1897, he left behind not only manuscripts of his own works, but also an extensive collection of other composers’ autograph manuscripts (including of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, etc.) as well as bonds worth over 181,000 Gulden.The size of the sum is evident when one compares the rent that he paid his landlady Coelestine Truxa between 1887 and 1897 for his three-room apartment in Vienna’s Karlsgasse, which amounted half-yearly to 347 Gulden and 25 Kreuzer.

Brahms grew up in the Hamburg‘Gängeviertel’, an area of workers, small-scale artisans and tradesmen in modest circumstances [see Ch. 1 ‘Childhood in Hamburg’]. Later on, when he could determine his own lifestyle, luxury still held no appeal.