The third volume to appear in the magnum opus of A. Peter Brown takes as its topic the European symphony ca. 1800–ca. 1930 and is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the symphonies of Germany and the Nordic countries and discusses in great detail the symphonies of Weber, Spohr, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Lindblad, Berwald, Svendsen, Gade, Nielsen, Sibelius, Berlioz, Liszt, Raff, and Strauss. Volume 3B will examine the symphonies of Great Britain, Russia, and France during the same period.

Brown's series synthesizes an enormous amount of scholarly literature in a wide range of languages. It presents current overviews of the status of research, discusses important former or remaining problems of attribution, illuminates the style of specific works and their contexts, and samples early writings on their reception.