CROSS, SWORD AND LYRE: SACRED MUSIC AT THE IMPERIAL COURT OF FERDINAND II OF HABSBURG (1619-1637)

First edition. Publisher's original black cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. Nine figures, eight tables and 50 musical examples throughout the text. A fine copy, the binding square and tight, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the lightly rubbed dustwrapper that is faded to the spine.

'Cross, Sword and Lyre' introduces a nearly lost culture: the Vienna court of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-37). During the Thirty Years War, Vienna was home to one of the largest, most resplendent musical organisations in Europe, and an important hub for the assimilation of modern Italianate music in the German-speaking lands. The author looks at the music in its cultural context, showing how sacred music at this pivotal centre was shaped by the composers, institutions, and ideas of the period. He examines the life and works of the most important court composers, particularly the two imperial chapel masters Giovanni Priuli and Giovanni Valentini. The book demonstrates how their music was shaped by liturgy, court ceremony, dynastic tradition, and music's function as courtly representation and political statement, as well as by the personnel, instruments, and repertoire of the music chapel.