Clear, systematic presentation of the evolution of musical style from Gregorian Chant (AD 700) to mid-20th-century atonal music. Excellent volume for music students, scholars, and laymen emphasizes the continuity of basic musical principles with detailed coverage of major period styles and composers. Over 140 musical examples. Bibliography.

Traces the currents that have shaped the development of music in the twentieth century and discusses the contributions of such composers as Mahler, Debussy, Stockhausen, Vaughan Williams, Bartok, and Stravinsky

A beautifully composed journey through music history! Music history is a required course for all music students. Unfortunately, the typical music history book is dry and academic, focusing on rote memorization of important composers and works. This leads many to think that the topic is boring, but bestselling author Michael Miller proves that isn’t so. This guide makes music history interesting and fun, for both music students and older music lovers. • Covers more than Western “classical” music—also includes non-Western music and uniquely American forms such as jazz • More than just names and dates—puts musical developments in context with key historical events

A survey of the development of romantic music includes analyses of the careers of composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Wagner, and Liszt

Virtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author's Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics. The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author's responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity. The book (and corresponding Web site) includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text.

Why do we feel justified in using adjectives such as romantic, erotic, heroic, melancholic, and a hundred others when speaking about music? How do we locate these meanings within particular musical styles? These are questions that have occupied Derek Scott's thoughts and driven his critical musicological research for many years. In this selection of essays, dating from 1995-2010, he returns time and again to examining how conventions of representation arise and how they become established. Among the themes of the collection are social class, ideology, national identity, imperialism, Orientalism, race, the sacred and profane, modernity and postmodernity, and the vexed relationship of art and entertainment. A wide variety of musical styles is discussed, ranging from jazz and popular song to the symphonic repertoire and opera.

In this fascinating study, Robert Philip argues that recordings of the early twentieth-century provide an important, and hitherto neglected, resource in the history of musical performance.

Exceptionally clear, systematic presentation of the evolution of musical style from Gregorian Chant (AD 700) to mid-20th-century atonal music. Over 140 musical examples. Bibliography.

Who wrote the first true "opera"? Why did jazz go Latin? And how did blues influence rock? Find out in the story of how music has shaped the world. Music has the ability to evoke the full spectrum of human emotions, irrespective of the listener's culture or nationality. This groundbreaking ebook examines that shared experience - from prehistory to the present. A compelling and richly illustrated narrative, Music explores the roots of all genres from the chants of the middle ages through the grandeur of the classical period to the modern rhythms of blues, jazz, hip-hop, and pop. Spectacular galleries display families of instruments from around the world, while special features showcase the evolution of key instruments, such as the piano and the violin, and profile iconic innovators as diverse as Mozart, George Gershwin, and David Bowie. Charting every musical revolution, from bone flutes to electronica and from jazz to hip-hop, this visually stunning history will hit the right note with you, whether you are into pop or rock or disco or rap, classical or opera.