"First paperback printing 1997"--T.p. verso.

1.Beethoven and social identity -- 2. Emergence of serious music culture, 1784-1805 -- 3. Musical patronage and social change -- 4. Beethoven's social resources -- 5. "From Haydn's hands": narrative constructions of Beethoven's talent and future success -- 6. Beethoven in the salons -- 7. Beethoven-Wölffl piano duel: aesthetic debates and social boundaries -- 8. Beethoven's early aesthetic campaigns -- 9. Beethoven and the resources of cultural authority.