Mendelssohn's 'Italian' Symphony

This is the first book-length study of the composition, reception, extramusical implications, and stylistic eclecticism of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, a staple of the nineteenth-century musical canon. Cooper devotes extensive attention to the differences between the posthumously published familiar version of the work and the composer's revision, which remained unpublished until 2001. He presents substantial new insights into a work which many listeners and scholars have known only in the version the composer considered less successful.

Michael Cooper is Associate Professor of Music History at the University of North Texas. He has been Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Assistant Professor of Music History at Illinois Wesleyan University.