The Essential Listening to Music

by Craig Wright

THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC draws on the strengths of author Craig Wright's larger volumes--outstanding listening resources, clear writing, state-of-the-art online resources--and delivers them in a direct, conversational style that is designed to inspire a lifelong appreciation of music. In this concise book, scholar and master-teacher Wright focuses on the key concepts and works presented within a typical Music Appreciation course, avoids lengthy discussions on side topics, and includes a set of integrated digital resources that make it easy--and fun--for you to master the material. THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC is approximately 60 percent shorter than the large volume and is priced much lower than our larger texts. This chronological text discusses musical examples from each historical period, each discussed within its social context. This provides you with a sense of a piece's construction, as well as its historical and cultural meaning. THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC includes a wide range of resources designed to develop listening skills and challenge you: a free "Introduction to Listening" CD, packaged with each copy of the text; Listening Exercises built into the book and online (unique to Wright's text); ; streaming music and downloads; computer-enhanced Active Listening Guides; and listening quizzes for all of the music in the text. All of these are included within CourseMate, a comprehensive online learning environment. You can download all of the music that is covered in the text -- directly to a music library --using the Sony Music Download Card that is bound into the book. An optional two-CD set is also available.

Genres: Music, Classical Music, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2012

About the author

Craig Milton Wright (born in 1944 in Fort Sill, Okla.) is the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor Emeritus of Music at Yale University.

He specialises in music history.

Librarian note: There are multiple authors with this name in this data base. This one is Craig^Wright.

Reviews

[Bahattin Cizreli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coursera'da Craig Wright'ın Introduciton to Classical Music dersinin ders kitabı. Çok keyifli süren 9 hafta boyunca parça parça klasik müzik tarihine ve temel kavramlara aşina olma şansı edindim.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a MOOC with the author of this introductory text. The course covered everything from medieval Gregorian chants to John Adams (postmodern). The text comes with 2 disks of the music excerpts used in the course. I didn't get as much out of it as I would have if I'd listened to more than just the excerpts. A competing text, Music Then And Now, does have the full works and I found that more helpful. I've been a classical music lover since early childhood, but there was so much I didn't know and didn't know how to appreciate. I'm very indebted to the course and both textbooks.

[Hunter McCleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure why this book only averaged 3-plus stars. Maybe they did not take the accompanying online class. I loved the book and the class even more. This is the perfect introduction for someone who knows nothing about music, has a tin ear (I really struggled with some of the music playback quizzes) but loves history. I understand the evolution of Western music so much better now and my enjoyment has grown immeasurably. Well, except for opera. Yipes!

[Mohamad Hosein Eqbali · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good starter for the learners of the classical music. Could be used as a book to come back to whenever in need.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent, if brief, introduction to the history of western, classical music, its forms, major composers, and the culture of performance aimed at making the reader an informed listener. The book, spans history from the Medieval Era all the way to American Jazz with a brief mention of other forms of American music. Many references to pieces of music, for which Wright provides commentary, provide illustration of the forms as well as practice listening. Although many of these references are included in the book and can be looked up, the bulk of these are available as clips and commentary online or as downloads because the book was designed for a class at Yale University (Wright also has a scaled down version of this course available through Coursera.org which I also recommend.). Throughout the book Wright makes reference to pertinent events of history and the arts, particularly the visual arts, all of which enhance Wright's epilogue in which he summarizes the importance of the Classical Western musical tradition in its ubiquitous nature and its role more broadly in western history and culture. The living tradition of classical western music, which at times is not so traditional, is deepened by Wright's own experiences with musical performance and more recent composers which bring the music up to date. Apart from introducing a solid foundation in classical western music basics, this book leaves one with much to ponder, including the growing impact of technology from the development of various instruments and the modern symphony orchestra to methods of recording and disseminating music performance. For all its brevity, this is a rich book. Highly recommended.

[minhhai · Rating 5 out of 5]

Except for the price, this is a great introduction to Western classical music.

The book guides readers through the development of (Western classical music) from the Gregorian chants in the Middle Age to Postmodernistic Jazz and electronic music, along with its historical and cultural context (especially visual arts). The contents are superbly intuitive and rich. The author adds many interesting personal back-stories to make this supposed textbook a really joyful read.

The writing and presentation are great. The writing style is elegant, concise, effective with a conversational (somewhat humorous) tone, demonstrating the author's deep knowledge in the art. All pages are colored, including many beautiful illustrations such as photographs, relevant paintings and music scores.

The author also illustrates musical styles by introducing and explaining exemplary musical excerpts which I find particularly helpful (and hard to find in other music books).

Overall, an excellent non-technical book in classical music for all music lovers even without knowledge of music theory. My musical understanding and appreciation has been enhanced substantially after reading the book (which I'll re-read many times), even though I've played classical music for 10+ years.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Less than 300 pages, big colorful pictures and most of it fluff.

Take the 4th page. "Today most of the music that we hear isn’t “live” music but recorded sound." The section is called "Listening to Whose Music?" That means spending time and space to talk about Edison's metal cylinders, than magnetic tape only to find out that "In digital recording all the components..." Is that useful? Yes, to tell you about CDs. But only to find out that "Most recorded music now is no longer stored and sold on CDs."

[Shadow Moon]

I’d love to read more books, but I just don’t have the time. Now, it’s mostly audiobooks or podcasts, some of which are on special platforms, and some are just interesting lectures, interviews, short films I find on YouTube. To make it easier to listen, I download them via the tubidy mp3 service. Overall, I think this way of getting information is not bad, even if it’s not reading.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Start right here.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a teacher's guide to music appreciation classes. It is a strong text for this purpose, enabling teachers to understand music and - most importantly - how to enable students to hear melody, harmony and rhythm.

The book does focus on classical music, with some mentions of pop. These references are a bit 'let's get down with the young people.' Also the difference between classical and pop music is reified.

A useful book, well structured and well presented.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought as a whole that this book gave some good information. However, it is very much determined on the reader having a pre-understanding to music, which is ironic as it is mostly used to teach the basic of music. If you must get the book, make sure to get the companion CD and the Online usage aspect that go alongside it. They give useful insight to the world of music.