Listening to Music

Summary: More than any other music appreciation text, LISTENING TO MUSIC, 5th Edition, helps students to develop and refine their listening skills. Wright covers traditional Western music from medieval to modern and integrates non-Western music throughout the text where appropriate, drawing comparisons between Western and non-Western musical cultures. Concluding chapters discuss popular music and its impact on musical globali...zation. Musical examples from each historical period are discussed within their social context, giving students a broad sense not only of the construction of a piece, but also of its historical and cultural meaning. This chronological text offers instructors and students particular help in developing listening skills in three ways: First, a free "Introduction to Listening" CD comes packaged with each student copy of the text. This CD plays all of the music discussed in the music fundamentals chapters in Part I of the text, providing numerous demonstrations and quizzes, as well as an audio guide called "Instruments of the Orchestra." Second, Wright's text is the only one to provide Listening Exercises built into the book; a total of 47 Exercises delve deeply into the core repertory. Third, computer-enhanced Active Listening Guides and listening quizzes for all of the music in the text are available at no extra cost from the Thomson Schirmer website to further challenge and test your students. [read more]