Music in Western Civilization (Available Titles Cengagenow)

Category: Books,New, Used & Rental Textbooks,Humanities

Music in Western Civilization (Available Titles Cengagenow) Details

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.""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.""The writing is focused, vivid, and engaging---the strongest I have seen in a college textbook for majors studying Western art music. The author excels at breathing life into the works of prominent composers, and at setting in sharp relief the historical and cultural circumstances that engendered them.""Short chapters delineate material into 'user-friendly' segments." Read more 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 forty 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); his large lecture course Exploring the Nature of Genius; and most recently his Coursera course Introduction to Classical Music. 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 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining fellow inductee, banjo player Steve Martin. In addition to LISTENING TO MUSIC and LISTENING TO WESTERN MUSIC, EIGHTH EDITION, Wright has also published THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC, SECOND EDITION; 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; and MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE (Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010), with coauthor Bryan Simms. He is currently at work on a volume titled MOZART’S BRAIN: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF GENIUS. Read more

Reviews

I am a doctoral student in conducting and an avid lover of books. I purchase many books each year and am constantly in search of texts that are interesting, well-designed, well-written, and easy to understand. Craig Wright and Bryan Simms have written what I believe is the best general survey of western music history EVER! The writing is clear, engaging, and easy to understand. The book is in full-color with hundreds of maps, examples of art, architecture, pictures of composers, palaces, instruments, etc. The chapters are short and are written in such a way that the material is easily retained. Furthermore, each chapter concludes with an EXCELLENT summary and list of key terms which can be used as a self-test for recall of important facts and concepts. Finally, the book is built around a comprehensive list of pieces spanning all periods in the history of western music. The accompanying scores and CD's are also excellent (though the CD's can be hard to find online). The book also contains an exceptional glossary and an easy-to-use index. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand history of music. It is also exceptional for use as a graduate history review text and I highly recommend it for anyone facing doctoral qualifying or comprehensive exams in history. A beautiful work - well worth the price.

Share this post