Central to the repertoire of Western art music since the 1700s, the symphony has come to be regarded as one of the ultimate compositional challenges.

In his series The Symphonic Repertoire, the late A. Peter Brown explored the symphony from its 18th century beginnings into the 21st century. In volume V, The Symphony in the Americas, Brown's former students and colleagues collaborate to complete the work he began on this critical period of development in symphonic history. The research and adds to an unmatched compendium of knowledge for the student, teacher, performer, and sophisticated amateur. This volume presents current overviews of the status of research, deals with unique challenges for the development of the symphony in the United States and Latin America, illuminates the style of specific works and their contexts, and samples early writings on their reception.

This much-anticipated fifth volume of The Symphonic Repertoire--The Symphony in the Americas--offers a user-friendly, comprehensive history of the symphony genre in the United States and Latin America.