Cross, Sword and Lyre

by Steven Saunders

Published 1 August 1995
This detailed study introduces a nearly lost music culture: the Viennese court of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1619-37). Drawing on a wide range of literature, musicological and otherwise, the book seeks to place sacred music at the Habsburg court early in the 17th century within the context of social and cultural life, showing how it was shaped by the composers, institutions and ideas of the time.