The nineteenth century was an age of experimentation in music. It was also a time of unfettered individualism that produced compositions in a broad range of musical styles. By focusing on a handful of well-known composers, past studies of nineteenth-century music have tended to overlook the variety and diversity of musical productions characteristic of the day. Walls Of Circumstance offers a fresh appraisal of nineteenth-century styles. Jensen examines the lives and music of eleven composers little known today: Juan Crisostomo Arriaga, Norbert Burgmuller, Franz Berwald, Henry Hugo Pierson, Sigismond Thalberg, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Hippolyte Monpou, Pietro Raimondi, Giovanni Sgambati, Hermann Goetz, and Guillaume Lekeu. For the first time their musical contributions are placed within the context of nineteenth-century musical and cultural life.