Over the long 20th-century fin de siècle(1864–1928), Vienna was a hub of cultural and intellectual activity, with many famous composers, writers, and artists living and working in the city. At the same time, however, Austria was in decline, and the decadence of the Viennese upper class stood in contrast to, and denial of, the sociopolitical reality. Hood looks at how the composers of Vienna used the waltz to critique and give narrative to the city's decadence, artifice, and decay… This book offers a well-researched and fresh take on major canonical works. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

Choice Reviews

“The Waltz is bound to become an indispensable contribution to the musical analysis of fin-de-siècle Vienna and particularly the waltz and its symbolic signification. Masterful use of topical and narratological procedures, but also of psychoanalysis as it is provided by the cultural context under scrutiny. Taking into account and relating both art music (Schönberg, Webern, Mahler) and functional genres such as dances and operetta reveals itself a fruitful, clever operation.”

Joan Grimalt Santacana, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

“Drawing on topic theory, along with psychology and philosophy, Danielle Hood makes a compelling argument for reading the waltz as an uncanny narrative and tying the meaning to music as early as Johann Strauss II and Die Fledermaus rather than fin-de siècle Vienna. The case studies are detailed and incorporate tonal, atonal, and serial music and illustrate that the Viennese traditions did not fade away with World War I. The waltz and the Ländler have always been connected, and Hood demonstrates how the opposition between the two grows into an uncanny narrative.”

Erik Heine, Oklahoma City University

“Danielle Hood’s examination of the waltz in fin-de-siecle Vienna offers, on the one hand, a corrective to the relative absence of analytical accounts of music of this time in terms of topic and on the other, psychologically informed readings that tease out hitherto unexplored connections between diverse repertoires and composers. Hood’s wide-ranging interpretative strategy touches on the musical application of Freudian theory, narratology, and hermeneutics. Readers interested in music’s multiple significations and the interrelationships between musical topics and narrative, culture, and the unconscious will find much food for thought in Hood’s lively account.”

Edward Venn, University of Leeds