ABSTRACT
Vienna was an important center in the European Classical era, and conventional musicological narratives often canonize a select set of male composers who resided in that city. The oft-repeated story reverberates in modern concert halls, opera stages, collegiate concert series, music history textbooks, and public radio programming. In truth, the streets, salons, theatres, courts, businesses, and churches of Vienna also were humming with the musical activity of women who contributed greatly to the Viennese musical scene as composers, performers, instrument builders, and arts sponsors. This chapter reframes Classical-era Vienna, providing a wider view that acknowledges the interwoven stories of men and women who together engaged in the musical life of a city that impacted musical posterity. Included in the chapter are performer/composers Marianna Martines and Maria Theresia von Paradis, piano builder Nannette Streicher née Stein, performers Aloysia, Constanze, and Josefa Weber, and sponsors whose monetary contributions sustained now-famous composers.
