Widely praised by instructors for its captivating presentation of musical concepts, this landmark music-appreciation text continues to help transform students into active, insightful listeners. Authors Joseph Kerman and Gary Tomlinson, two of America’s leading musicologists and music educators, are both known as inspirational and wide-ranging teachers. Their diverse experience, lively writing style, and clear explanations of musical concepts make music approachable and engaging for students in the introductory course. Their text continually offers the highest quality recordings, the clearest Listening Charts, and the richest cultural contexts to inform students’ listening. Now the sixth edition of Listen extends its proven approach into the multimedia environment with new music, new media, and a new look, making it easier than ever to discover the best way to listen.

“Listen is neither too complicated nor too simplistic in its approach to the appreciation of Western music — it is just right for the average non-music major.”

— James E. Cunningham, Florida Atlantic University * New to this editionPreface: To the Instructor 

Introduction: To the Student        Music and History        Listening

  

Unit I: Fundamentals

        Listening *PRELUDE: An Orchestral Prelude by Richard Wagner

             *LISTENING CHART 1: Wagner, Prelude to The Valkyrie  CHAPTER 1: Music, Sound, and Time 

1. Sound Vibrations 

2. Dynamics (Amplitude) 

        LISTENING EXERCISE 1: Pitch and Dynamics  

3. Tone Color: Overtones  

4. Duration  CHAPTER 2: Rhythm and Pitch 

1. Rhythm 

         LISTENING EXERCISE 2: Rhythm, Meter, and Tempo 

         LISTENING EXERCISE 3: Rhythm, Meter, and Tempo  

2. Pitch 

Interlude A: Musical Notation   CHAPTER 3: The Structures of Music  

1. Melody  

        Box: Characteristics of Tunes 

        LISTENING EXERCISE 4: Melody and Tune  

2. Harmony 

3. Texture 

        LISTENING EXERCISE 5: Texture 

4. Tonality and Modality 

        LISTENING EXERCISE 6: Mode and Key 

Interlude B: Musical Instruments  CHAPTER 4: Musical Form and Musical Style  

1. Form in Music 

        LISTENING EXERCISE 7: Musical Form 

2. Musical Style  

            LISTENING CHART 2: Britten, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra  UNIT II: Early Music: An Overview  CHAPTER 5: The Middle Ages 

1. Music and the Church: Plainchant         Plainchant, Preface for Mass on Whit Sunday, “Vere dignum” 

        Plainchant, Gregorian Antiphon, “In paradisum” 

        Hildegard of Bingen, Plainchant Sequence, “Columba aspexit”     2. Music at Court 

        Box: How Did Early Music Sound? 

        Bernart de Ventadorn, Troubadour song, “La dousa votz” 3. The Evolution of Polyphony 

        Pérotin, Organum, “Alleluia. Diffusa est gratia”  4. Later Medieval Polyphony          Guillaume de Machaut, Motet, “Quant en moi” Global Perspectives 1: Sacred Chant 

        Qur’anic recitation, “Ya Sin”  

        Hawai’ian chant, Mele pule

        Navajo song, “K’adnikini’ya’”   CHAPTER 6: The Renaissance 

1. New Attitudes 

        Guillaume Dufay, Harmonized hymn, “Ave maris stella” 

2. The High Renaissance Style 

        Josquin Desprez, Pange lingua Mass

3. Music as Expression 

        *Josquin Desprez, Chanson, “Mille regrets”  

4. Late Renaissance Music 

        Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Pope Marcellus Mass        Thomas Weelkes, Madrigal, “As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending 

5. Instrumental Music: Early Developments 

        Anonymous, Galliard, “Daphne”         Anonymous, “Kemp’s Jig” 

        Box: Dance Stylization 

Global Perspectives 2: Music and Early European Colonialism 

        Inca processional music, “Hanaq pachap kusikuynin”  CHAPTER 7: The Early Baroque Period 

1. From Renaissance to Baroque 

        Giovanni Gabrieli, Motet, “O magnum mysterium”  

2. Style Features of Early Baroque Music 

3. Opera         Claudio Monteverdi, The Coronation of Poppea 

        Box: Singing Italian 

        Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas 

4. The Rise of Instrumental Music         Girolamo Frescobaldi, Suite (Canzona, Balletto, Corrente, and Passacaglia) 

Global Perspectives 3: Ostinato Forms 

        *Foday Musa Suso, “Laminba”         Pygmy polyphony, Elephant-hunt song  UNIT III: The Eighteenth Century  CHAPTER 8: Prelude: The Late Baroque Period 

1. Absolutism and the Age of Science 

2. Musical Life in the Early Eighteenth Century 

3. Style Features of Late Baroque Music 

4. The Emotional World of Baroque Music  CHAPTER 9: Baroque Instrumental Music 

1. Concerto and Concerto Grosso 

        Antonio Vivaldi, Violin Concerto in G, La stravaganza, Op. 4, No. 12 

            LISTENING CHART 3: Vivaldi, Violin Concerto in G, first movement 

            LISTENING CHART 4: Vivaldi, Violin Concerto in G, second movement        Biography: Antonio Vivaldi         Johann Sebastian Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

            LISTENING CHART 5: Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5,  first movement         Biography: Johann Sebastian Bach 

2. Fugue         Box: Fugues, Free and Learned         Johann Sebastian Bach, The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 4 

            LISTENING CHART 6: Bach, The Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 4 

3. The Dance Suite 

        Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D (c. 1730)  CHAPTER 10: Baroque Vocal Music 

1. Opera 

        Box: The Castrato 

        George Frideric Handel, Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare in Egitto)  

2. Oratorio 

        George Frideric Handel, Messiah 

        Biography: George Frideric Handel 

        Box: Women in Music

3. The Church Cantata 

        Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata No. 4, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”  

4. The Organ Chorale 

        Johann Sebastian Bach, Chorale Prelude, “Christ lag in Todesbanden”  CHAPTER 11: Prelude: Music and the Enlightenment  

1. The Enlightenment and Music 

2. The Rise of Concerts 

3. Style Features of Classical Music  

4. Form in Classical Music  CHAPTER 12: The Symphony  

1. The Movements of the Symphony  

2. Sonata Form 

        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550 

            LISTENING CHART 7: Mozart, Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, first movement

        Biography: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

3. Classical Variation Form 

        Franz Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 95 in C Minor  

            LISTENING CHART 8: Haydn, Symphony No. 95, second movement 

        Biography: Franz Joseph Haydn 

4. Minuet Form (Classical Dance Form) 

        Franz Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 95 in C Minor, third movement 

            LISTENING CHART 9: Haydn, Symphony No. 95, third movement  

5. Rondo Form 

        Franz Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 95 in C Minor, fourth movement 

            LISTENING CHART 10: Haydn, Symphony No. 95, fourth movement 

CHAPTER 13: Other Classical Genres 

1. The Sonata  

        *Francesca LeBrun, Sonata in F, Op. 1, No. 3 

2. The Classical Concerto 

        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto in A., K. 488 

            LISTENING CHART 11: Mozart, Piano Concerto in A, K. 488, first movement

3. The String Quartet  

4. Opera Buffa 

        Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Giovanni   

Global Perspectives 4: Musical Form: Two Case Studies from Asia 

            LISTENING CHART 12: Japanese gagaku, Etenraku 

            LISTENING CHART 13: I Lotring, Balinese gamelan, Bopong   UNIT IV: The Nineteenth Century  CHAPTER 14: Beethoven 

1. Between Classicism and Romanticism 

2. Beethoven and the Symphony 

        Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 

            LISTENING CHART 14: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, first movement 

            LISTENING CHART 15: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 (complete work) Biography: Ludwig van Beethoven 

3. Beethoven’s “Third Period” 

        Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet in F, Op. 135, second movement CHAPTER 15: Prelude: Music after Beethoven: Romanticism 

1. Romanticism 

2. Concert Life in the Nineteenth Century 

3. Style Features of Romantic Music 

4. Program Music 

5. Form in Romantic Music  CHAPTER 16: The Early Romantics 

1. The Lied 

        Franz Schubert, “Erlkönig” (“The Erlking”)   

        Biography: Franz Schubert 

        Robert Schumann, Dichterliebe (“A Poet’s Love”)  

        Biography: Robert Schumann 

        Clara Schumann, “Der Mond kommt still gegangen” (“The moon has risen softly”)

        Biography: Clara Wieck (Clara Schumann) 

2. The Character Piece for Piano 

        Franz Schubert, Moment Musical No. 2 in A-flat 

        Robert Schumann, Carnaval 

        Frédéric Chopin, Nocturne in F-sharp, Op. 15, No. 2 

        Biography: Frédéric Chopin 

3. Early Romantic Program Music 

        Biography: Franz Liszt  

        Biography: Felix Mendelssohn 

        Biography: Fanny Mendelssohn         Hector Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony: Episodes in the Life of an Artist

            LISTENING CHART 16: Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony, fifth movement                 Biography: Hector Berlioz   CHAPTER 17: Romantic Opera 

1. Verdi and Italian Opera 

        Box: Early Romantic Opera 

        Giuseppe Verdi, Aida 

        Biography: Giuseppe Verdi 

2. Wagner and Music Drama  

        *Box: Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde

        *Richard Wagner, The Nibelung’s Ring: The Valkyrie 

        Biography: Richard Wagner CHAPTER 18: The Late Romantics 

1. Late Romantic Program Music 

        Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Overture-Fantasy, Romeo and Juliet 

            LISTENING CHART 17: Tchaikovsky, Overture-Fantasy, Romeo and Juliet 

        Biography: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 

2. Nationalism 

        Modest Musorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition  

        Biography: Modest Musorgsky 

        Box: Other Nationalists 

3. Responses to Romanticism 

        Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 

            LISTENING CHART 18: Brahms, Violin Concerto, third movement 

        Biography: Johannes Brahms

        Gustav Mahler, Symphony no. 1 

        Biography: Gustav Mahler 

            LISTENING CHART 19: Mahler, Symphony No. 1, third movement, Funeral March 

Global Perspectives 5: Musical Drama Worldwide 

        Japanese kabuki, Dojoji 

        Beijing opera, The Prince Who Changed into a Cat 

UNIT V: The Twentieth Century and Beyond  CHAPTER 19: Prelude: Music and Modernism 

1. Progress and Uncertainty 

2. The Response of Modernism 

3. Literature and Art Before World War I 

4. Modernist Music Before World War I  CHAPTER 20: The Twentieth Century: Early Modernism 

1. Debussy and Impressionism 

        Claude Debussy, Three Nocturnes 

            LISTENING CHART 20: Debussy, Clouds

        Biography: Claude Debussy 

2. Stravinsky: The Primacy of Rhythm 

        Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring: Part I, “The Adoration of the Earth” 

            LISTENING CHART 21: Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, from Part I         Biography: Igor Stravinsky 

3. Expressionism 

        Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire  

        Biography: Arnold Schoenberg 

        Alban Berg, Wozzeck  

        Box: Schoenberg and Serialism  

4. Modernism in America: Ives 

        Charles Ives, Second Orchestral Set, second movement

            LISTENING CHART 22: Ives, “The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People’s Outdoor Meeting” 

        Biography: Charles Ives 

        Charles Ives, The Unanswered Question 

  

CHAPTER 21: Alternatives to Modernism 

        Box: Opera in the Early Twentieth Century  

1. Maurice Ravel 

        Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G  

            LISTENING CHART 23: Ravel, Piano Concerto in G, first movement

        Biography: Maurice Ravel  

2. Béla Bartók  

        Béla Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta 

            LISTENING CHART 24: Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, second movement (Allegro) 

        Biography: Béla Bartók  

3. Aaron Copland 

        Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring

        Biography: Aaron Copland

*4. The Rise of Film Music 

        Box: Music and Totalitarianism 

        *Sergei Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky 

            *LISTENING CHART 25: Prokofiev, Alexander Nevsky, Cantata 5: The Battle On Ice 

        *Biography: Sergei Prokofiev   CHAPTER 22: The Late Twentieth Century  

1. Modernism in Music: The Second Phase  

        Anton Webern, Five Orchestral Pieces of 1913 

2. The Postwar Avant-Garde  

        György Ligeti, Lux aeterna 

            LISTENING CHART 26: Ligeti, Lux aeterna  

        Edgard Varèse, Poème électronique 

        Box: Modernist Music and Architecture 

        John Cage, 4’ 33” 

*3. Music at the End of the Millenium         *Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians

           *LISTENING CHART 27: Reich, Music for 18 Musicians, beginning  

        Kaija Saariaho, From the Grammar of Dreams 

        *John Adams, El Niño  CHAPTER 23: Music in America: Jazz and Beyond  

1. Early American Music: An Overview 

2. Jazz: The First Fifty Years  

        Biography: Ragtime: Scott Joplin 

        Sippie Wallace, “If You Ever Been Down” Blues

        Biography: Louis Armstrong  

        Duke Ellington, “Conga Brava” 

        Biography: Duke Ellington 

        Global Perspectives 6: African Drumming 

        Yoruba drumming, “Ako” 

3. Later Jazz 

        Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, “Out of Nowhere” 

        Miles Davis, “Bitches Brew”

4. The Influence of Jazz and Blues 

        George Gershwin, Piano Prelude No. 1 

        Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story  

5. Rock: The First Fifty Years 

Global Perspectives 7: Global Music  

        Solomon Linda, South African popular song, “Anoku Gonda”  

6. Conclusion  *Appendix A: Timelines  

Appendix B: Suggested Readings and Recommended Web Sites 

Glossary of Musical Terms 

Index