Vienna in 20th Century Music:
How Composers & Musicians reflect on Vienna

Vienna prides itself as being the music capital of the World. A shameless exaggeration, but with a bit of truth in it: Professional music performance has its roots either in a religious or courtly context, two things taken very seriously in Vienna ever since the Middle Ages. Composition in the modern sense originated from representational concerts at the Baroque courts and churches of Vienna, leading straight into the compositions of the Vienna Classical Period with Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven as its most famous examples. Throughout Romanticism, Vienna remained a centre of high-end music performance, continued in the modern age by Schoenberg and the many music performance venues all over Vienna.

In terms of post-modern 20th century music, very few contributions to the international world of music originate from Vienna. Nevertheless, music conservatories of Austria are internationally famous and music performance as well as education are still a big deal all over the country. No wonder that musicians and singers often refer to Vienna as a particularly musical place. Thanks to YouTube, it is relatively easy to track music videos today and present them online.

When I saw a video of "Vienna" by the British 1980ies band "Ultravox", I thought it would be nice to collect a cross-section of songs and music that relate to Vienna in some way - 20th century and recent pieces, from academic performances to entertainment and pop-music. The collection is admittedly rather arbitrary - due to the limitations of what is available on YouTube and my personal search patterns. However, I am grateful for suggestions and willing to accept additions in the future.