• Introduction
1. Status: ‘You Are a God-Man, the True Artist by God’s Grace’

• The Musician as Slave and Servant
• Handel, Haydn and the Liberation of the Musician
• Mozart, Beethoven and the Perils of the Public Sphere
• Rossini, Paganini, Liszt—the Musician as Charismatic Hero
• Richard Wagner and the Apotheosis of the Musician
• The Triumph of the Musician in the Modern World

2. Purpose: ‘The Most Romantic of All the Arts’

• Louis XIV and the Assertion of Power
• Opera and the Representation of Social Status
• Bach, Handel and the Worship of God
• Concerts and the Public Sphere
• The Secularisation of Society, the Sacralisation of Music
• The Romantic Revolution
• Beethoven as Hero and Genius
• Problems with the Public
• Wagner and Bayreuth
• The Invention of Classical Music
• Jazz and Romanticism
• Rock and Romanticism

3. Places and Spaces: From Palace to Stadium

• Churches and Opera Houses
• Concerts in Pubs and Palaces
• Concert Halls and the Sacralisation of Music
• Temples for Music
• Two Ways of Elevating Music—Bayreuth and Paris
• The Democratisation of Musical Space
• Places and Spaces for the Masses

4. Technology: From Stradivarius to Stratocaster

• Musical Gas and Other Inventions
• Pianos for the Middle Classes
• Valves, Keys and Saxophones
• Recording
• Radio and Television
• The Electrification of Youth Culture
• The Triumph of Technology

5. Liberation: Nation, People, Sex

• National Pride and Prejudice
• Rule Britannia? Aux Armes, Citoyens!
• Liberation in Italy
• Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles, Especially on the Rhine
• From the Woods and Fields of Bohemia
• A Life for the Tsar
• Race and Music
• Sex
• Conclusion
• Chronology
• Further Reading
• Notes
• Illustrations Credits
• Index

Tim Blanning is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and the author of The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815.