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{{Short description|18th and 19th century classical music school}}
{{History of Western art music}}
The '''First Viennese School''' is a name mostly used to refer to three [[composer]]s of the [[Classical period (music)|Classical period]] in [[Western art music]] in late-18th-century to early-19th-century [[Vienna]]: [[Joseph Haydn]], [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] and [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]. Sometimes, [[Franz Schubert]] is added to the list.

In German-speaking countries, the term ''Wiener Klassik'' (lit. ''Viennese classical era/art'') is used. That term is often more broadly applied to the Classical era in music as a whole, as a means to distinguish it from other periods that are colloquially referred to as ''classical'', namely [[Baroque music|Baroque]] and [[Romantic music|Romantic]] music.

The term "Viennese School" was first used by Austrian musicologist Raphael Georg Kiesewetter, in 1834, although he only counted Haydn and Mozart as members of the school. Other writers followed suit and eventually Beethoven was added to the list.<ref>{{Cite Grove |last=Heartz |first=Daniel |last2=Brown |first2=Bruce Alan |author2-link=Bruce Alan Brown |title=Classical |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> The designation "first" is added today to avoid confusion with the [[Second Viennese School]].

These composers sometimes encountered each other: Haydn and Mozart were even occasional chamber-music partners. Beethoven for a time received lessons from Haydn, probably heard Mozart play, and met Schubert a few times (see [[Beethoven and his contemporaries]]). However, they did not form a school in the sense of a deliberate co-operation associated with 20th-century schools, such as the Second Viennese School, or [[Les Six]]. Nor is there any evidence (other than Haydn teaching Beethoven) that one composer was "schooled" by another, in the way that Berg and Webern were taught by Schoenberg.

Attempts to extend the First Viennese School to include such later figures as [[Anton Bruckner]], [[Johannes Brahms]], [[Gustav Mahler]], and [[Richard Strauss]] are merely journalistic, and never encountered in academic musicology. According to scholar James F. Daugherty, the Classical period itself from approximately 1775 to 1825 is sometimes referred to as "the Viennese Classic period".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cmed.faculty.ku.edu/private/classical.html |title=The Classical Period (1775-1825) |first=James F. |last=Daugherty |publisher=[[University of Kansas]] |date= |access-date=20 March 2024}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Beethoven_and_his_contemporaries#Joseph_Haydn|Beethoven and Haydn]]
* [[Beethoven and Mozart]]
* [[Beethoven_and_his_contemporaries#Franz_Schubert|Beethoven and Schubert]]
* [[Haydn and Mozart]]

==Notes==
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{{Classical period (music)}}
{{Composition schools}}
{{First Viennese School}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Classical-period composers]]
[[Category:Classical period (music)]]
[[Category:Composition schools]]
[[Category:Austrian musicians| ]]
[[Category:Culture in Vienna]]