Synopses & Reviews
Understand music in context with MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION! Clear and easy-to-understand, this music text provides you with the tools you need to succeed in this course. With a focus on the history of music in the wider context of Western civilization, you will see how study of music history is important to the practice and performance of music today. Numerous full-color photographs, maps, and timelines give you a sense of the place of music within the arts and humanities in the West. Class preparation is made easy with the book-specific website that contains features such as additional musical selections, a music glossary, unit resources, and more.
Review
"Finally a textbook that examines the history if music in the wider context of Western civilization. The reader gets a clear sense of how music functioned in society."
Review
"[The writing] was the book's principle strength. It is a truly accessible book. . . . Students might even become better writers by reading this textbook! . . . It's probably alone in its field in this respect, and I can't praise it enough. . . . Students can learn with this book, and I don't say that about many textbooks."
Synopsis
Presenting music in its cultural context in a way that is clear and easy to understand, MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE offers detailed discussions of 224 works of music, covering all the major musical styles, genres, and composers in 83 brief yet intriguing chapters. The book places music in the context of the politics, personalities, arts, and humanities of each period of Western history. The importance of the cultural setting of many composers and genres is evidenced by such chapters as "Richard Strauss in Berlin," "Johann Sebastian Bach: Vocal Music in Leipzig," and "Music in Medieval Paris: Polyphony at Notre Dame."
Synopsis
This text is intended for the music history course that is a requirement for all undergraduate music majors. The course, which is taught over a period of two to four semesters, covers all the major movements and composers within a context of European political, social, and cultural history.
About the Author
Craig M. Wright received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in 1966 and his Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University in 1972. He began his teaching career at the University of Kentucky and for the past 40 years has been teaching at Yale University, where he is currently the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Music. At Yale, Wright's courses include his perennially popular introductory course "Listening to Music," also part of the offerings of Open Yale Courses, and his selective seminar "Exploring the Nature of Genius." He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on composers ranging from Leoninus to Bach. Wright has also been the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Einstein and Kinkeldey Awards of the American Musicological Society, and the Dent Medal of the International Musicological Society. In 2004, he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago. And in 2010, he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining fellow inductee banjo player Steve Martin. Wright has also published LISTENING TO MUSIC, CHINESE EDITION (Schirmer Cengage Learning/Three Union Press, 2012), translated and simplified by Profs. Li Xiujung (China Conservatory, Beijing) and Yu Zhigang (Central Conservatory, Beijing), both of whom worked with Wright at Yale; THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC (Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2012); and MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE (Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010), with coauthor Bryan Simms. He is presently at work on a volume entitled MOZART'S BRAIN: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF GENIUS. Bryan R. Simms (Bachelor of Arts, Yale University, 1966; Ph.D., Yale University, 1971) has taught since 1976 at the University of Southern California, where he has been director of graduate studies and is currently chair of the department of musicology. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Foundation. He is the author of books and articles on topics in twentieth-century music and music theory, including MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Schirmer 1996) and, most recently, THE ATONAL MUSIC OF ARNOLD SCHOENBERG, 1908-1923 (Oxford University Press).
Table of Contents
Part I: ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES. 1. Music in Ancient Greece. 2. Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Music in Rome, Jerusalem, and the Early Christian World. 3. Chant in the Monastery and Convent. 4. Music Theory in the Monastery: John of St. Gall and Guido of Arezzo. 5. Later Medieval Chant: Tropes, Sequences, and the Liturgical Drama of Hildegard of Bingen. 6. Troubadours and Trouvères. 7. Early Polyphony. 8. Music in Medieval Paris: Polyphony at Notre Dame. 9. Inside the Cathedral Close and University: Conductus and Motet. 10. In the Parisian Master's Study: Music Theory of the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova. 11. Music at the Court of the French Kings: The Ars Nova. 12. Fourteenth-Century Music in Reims: Guillaume de Machaut. 13. Avignon, Symbolic Scores, and the Ars Subtilior. Musical Interlude 1: From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Performance. Part II: THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY RENAISSANCE. 14. Music in Florence, 1350-1425. 15. Music at the Cathedral of Florence. 16. Music in England. 17. Music at the Court of Burgundy. 18. Music at the French Royal Court. 19. Music in the Low Countries. Part III: THE LATE RENAISSANCE. Musical Interlude 2: Music in the Late Renaissance. 20. Popular Music in Florence, 1470-1540: Carnival Song and Lauda, Frottola, and Early Madrigal. 21. Josquin Desprez and Music in Ferrara. Musical Interlude 3: Music Printing During the Renaissance. 22. Music in Renaissance Paris. 23. Renaissance Instruments and Instrumental Music. Musical Interlude 4: Music Theory in the Renaissance. 24. Music in Three German Cities: The Protestant-Catholic Confrontation. 25. Rome and the Music of the Counter-Reformation. 26. Music in Elizabethan England, Part I: Early Vocal Music. 27. Music in Elizabethan England, Part II: Later Vocal Music and Instrumental Music. 28. The Later Madrigal in Ferrara and Mantua: Gesualdo and Monteverdi. Part IV: BAROQUE MUSIC. 29. Early Baroque Music. 30. The Birth of Opera: Florence, Mantua, and Venice. 31. The Concerted Style in Venice and Dresden. 32. Religious Music in Baroque Rome. Musical Interlude 5: A Baroque Christmas in the Andes of South America. 33. Instrumental Music in Italy. 34. Instrumental Music in Germany and Austria. 35. Music in Paris and at the Court of Versailles: Vocal Music. 36. Music in Paris and at the Court of Versailles: Instrumental Music. Musical Interlude 6: From Ancient to Modern: Aspects of Baroque Music Theory. 37. Music in London, Part I: Henry Purcell. 38. Music in London, Part II: George Frideric Handel. 39. Johann Sebastian Bach: Instrumental Music in Weimar and Cöthen. 40. Johann Sebastian Bach: Vocal Music in Leipzig. Part V: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE CLASSICAL ERA. 41. Music in the Age of Enlightenment: Opera. 42. Music in the Age of Enlightenment: Orchestral Music. 43. Music in the Age of Enlightenment: Keyboard Music. 44. Classical Music in Vienna. 45. Joseph Haydn: Instrumental Music. 46. Joseph Haydn: Late Symphonies and Vocal Music. 47. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Instrumental Music. 48. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Vocal Music. 49. The Early Music of Beethoven. 50. Beethoven's Middle Period: 1802-1814. 51. After the Congress of Vienna: Beethoven's Late Music. Part VI: ROMANTICISM. Musical Interlude 7: Romanticism. 52. Franz Schubert. 53. Music in Paris Under Louis Philippe: Berlioz and Chopin. 54. Leipzig and the Gewandhaus: Mendelssohn and the Schumanns. 55. German Opera in the Nineteenth Century: Weber and Wagner. 56. Opera in Italy: Rossini and Verdi. 57. Nationalism and Virtuosity: Franz Liszt. 58. Vienna in the Late Nineteenth Century: Brahms and Bruckner. 59. Music and Ballet in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky. 60. Vienna at the turn of the Twentieth Century: Gustav and Alma Mahler. 61. England at the End of the Romantic Period: Elgar and Vaughan Williams. 62. Opera in Milan After Verdi: Puccini, Toscanini, and Verismo. 63. Paris of the Belle Epoque: Debussy, Faure, and Lili Boulanger. Part VII: THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY. Musical Interlude 8: Music Since 1900. 64. Richard Strauss in Berlin. 65. Music in Russian During the Silver