Gateways to Understanding Music

by Timothy Rice, Dave Wilson

Gateways to Understanding Music explores music in all the categories that constitute contemporary musical European classical music, popular music, jazz, and world music. Covering the oldest forms of human music making to the newest, the chronological narrative considers music from a global rather than a Eurocentric perspective. Each of sixty modular "gateways" covers a particular genre, style, or period of music. Every gateway opens with a guided listening example that unlocks a world of music through careful study of its structural elements. Based on their listening experience, students are asked to consider how the piece came to be composed or performed, how the piece or performance responded to the social and cultural issues at the time and place of its creation, and what that music means today. Students learn to listen to, explain, understand, and ultimately value all the music they may encounter in their world.FEATURESGlobal scope--Presents all music as worthy of study, including classical, world, popular, and jazz. Historical narrative--Begins with small-scale forager societies up to the present, with a shifting focus from global to European to American influences. Modular framework--60 gateways in 14 chapters allow flexibility to organize chronologically or by the seven recurring aesthetics, emotion, social life, links to culture, politics, economics, and technology. Listening-guided learning--Leads to understanding the emotion, meaning, significance, and history of music. Introduction of musical concepts--Defined as needed and compiled into a Glossary for reference. Consistent structure--With the same step-by-step format, students learn through repeated practice how to listen and how to think about music.In addition to streamed audio examples, the companion website hosts essential instructors' resources.

Genres: Music

504 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2019

About the author

Timothy Rice is a professor of ethnomusicology at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He specializes in the traditional music of the Balkans, especially from the Slavic-speaking nations of Bulgaria and Macedonia. He has served the field of ethnomusicology in a variety of ways, including editing the journal Ethnomusicology (1981-1984), acting as President of the Society for Ethnomusicology (2003-2005), and serving on the Executive Board of the International Council for Traditional Music (2007-20013). He served as Associate Dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture from 2005 to 2008. He served as director of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music from 2007 to 2013.