Summary This volume invites its readers into the highly varied world of chamber music composition, performance, and reception from England to Croatia, by way of the Czech lands, Italy, and France. It highlights ways in which the chamber music repertoire might engage in political or diplomatic issues, in chapters by Fenton, Kahan, Sà, and Thomason. The role of women in this genre of music also has a place this collection, bringing to light performances by all-women string quartets (November), and exposing the ethos of Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux's salon (Perrault). Societies devoted to works in this genre flourished throughout Europe during the time period in questions: here authors reflect on the workings of these groups and the nature of their performances in Prague (Bunzel) and Zagreb (Katalini?). Cultural transfer also has its place in these pages, across the English channel with Rei?felder's work on French chamber music composers in England, and from center to periphery in Branda's exploration of Dvo?ák's 'Farewell' tour. No volume on that most intimate of Romantic genres would be complete without a deep dive into musical style. Style, structure, and the Beethovenian legacy come to a head in two, in-depth studies of Franck's chamber music (de Médicis and Strucken-Paland) while questions of a 'late' or 'mature' compositional style ? a sacrosanct ideal connected to Beethoven ? a re held up for scrutiny in the music of Saint-Saëns (Deruchie) and Dvo?ák (Campo-Bowen). TABLE OF CONTENTS François de Médicis and Catrina Flint de Médicis Introduction Within, Around and Beyond the 'Beethovenian' Christopher Campo-Bowen Antonín Dvo?ák's String Quartets Opp. 105 and 106 and the Question of Late Style Andrew Deruchie Saint-Saëns's Second String Quartet and the Art of Composing 'Oldly' Christiane Strucken-Paland César Franck: The String Quartet at the Nexus of Tradition and Innovation François de Médicis The Franck Quintet: Dramatic Character, Style, and Relationship to the Beethoven Instrumental Tradition Nancy November Challenging Tradition: All-Female String Quartets of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Private and Public: Blurring the Boundaries Sylvia Kahan Reportage of Chamber Music in the Paris Daily Papers, 1860-1914 Isabelle Perreault Constructing and Re-Mediating the Ethos of a Music Lover: The Case of Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux Kathryn M. Fenton The Musical Art Quartet, Alice Warder Garrett, and American Musical Diplomacy in the Early Twentieth Century Chamber Music and Nationhood Eva Branda Evaluating Dvo?ák's 'Niche': The 1892 Farewell Tour, the Dumky Piano Trio Op. 90, and Perceptions of Dvo?ák as Chamber Music Composer Anja Bunzel Czech Song, Jan Ludevít Procházka, and the Salonesque Musical Entertainments in 1870s Prague Vjera Katalini? «Die edelste und küstlerischeste aller Kunstformen»: The Committee for the Promotion of Chamber Music ? A fin-de-siècle Initiative in Zagreb Hélder Sá Chamber Music 1850-1918: Violin and Chamber Music in Lisbon in the Early Days of the Republic National Identities and Cultural Transfer David Reißfelder Modern French Chamber Music in Britain and César Franck Geoff Thomason Chamber Concerts for Champagne Socialists: Quartets and Contradictions at Manchester's Ancoats Brotherhood at the End of the Long Nineteenth Century Abstracts and Biographies Index of Names