Product Overview
The only music appreciation text on the market to include listening exercises throughout the book, Listening to Music (Sixth Edition) masterfully develops and refines the listening skills of students. Acclaimed for unparalleled clarity and accuracy, Wright succinctly covers traditional Western music from medieval to modern. Musical examples from each historical period are discussed within their social context, giving students a broad sense of not only the construction of a piece, but also its historical and cultural meaning. Concluding chapters discuss (1) popular music and its impact on musical globalization, and (2) music from East Asia, the Near East, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, drawing comparisons between Western and non-Western musical cultures. This chronological text actively develops listening skills in three important ways: First, Listening to Music includes detailed Listening Exercises throughout the book. These easy-to-grade exercises help students focus on important musical elements and episodes; by providing these exercises in the book, Craig Wright (who teaches music appreciation and uses these exercises himself) frees instructors to spend time on other aspects of class preparation. Second, a free Introduction to Listening CD comes packaged with each copy of the text. This CD plays all of the music and musical examples for the listening exercises in Part One, which introduces music fundamentals. Third, Active Listening Guides with streaming music and listening quizzes are available from the Schirmer Cengage Learning premium website to further challenge and test students.
About This Edition
New Features
- Increasing the flexibility of the package, we now offer a two-CD set of core selections, a five-CD set of Western repertoire, and a separate popular/world CD. For the first time, music from the CD sets can be fully streamed on the premium website.
- For the first time, the text's companion site links to a complete online course taught by Craig Wright at Open Yale Courses, an open-access selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The courses include exciting, live in-class performances and demonstrations.
- More than 20 new, carefully selected pieces, as well as many fine new recordings of previous selections, have been added.
- Expanded coverage of popular music, including Broadway musicals and film and video game music, as well as new full-chapter coverage of music of the Far East, the Near East and Africa, and the Caribbean and Latin America. Recordings include more internal tracks to facilitate navigation to significant events in each piece.
- Margin references to the text website, as well as to online iTunes, Rhapsody, and YouTube playlists.
- Completely redesigned Active Listening Guides with streaming music that engage students and help make the vocabulary and performances more accessible.
Additional Features
- A split volume of the first 36 chapters, covering only Western (or classical) music, is available. Listening to Western Music will appeal to instructors who teach only classical music or who prefer a briefer and less expensive text that leaves world and popular music to other courses in the school curriculum.
- The main text is organized into 43 brief chapters that are introduced by eight part openers, each featuring an introduction to the historical period and an illustrated timeline of musical and historic events.
- The text is written by Craig Wright, a renowned music historian and teacher, who has been teaching music appreciation for more than 30 years. By teaching the course every year, Wright remains in touch with what today's students need to become personally engaged in the act of listening to music.
- The musical repertoire selected by Craig Wright is a definitive collection of carefully chosen recordings by world-renowned artists. The complete Western repertoire is packaged in a five-CD set; a two-CD set provides a smaller, core selection of music for listening study; a separate CD provides selections from popular and non-Western music.
- Full coverage of women as composers, performers, and patrons of music exposes students to the significant contributions of women to the music world. Female composers covered include Hildegard of Bingen, Beatriz of Dia, Barbara Strozzi, Clara Schumann, Ellen Zwilich, and Bessie Smith.
- In-text Listening Guides help students understand and enjoy extended musical compositions on the CDs. Timing points within each guide allow the listener to follow along as the piece unfolds. The Listening Exercises that follow help students to develop and improve their listening skills through a self-test.
Explore this title's supplements:
2-CD Set for Wright's Listening to Music (Sixth Edition) and Listening to Western Music (Second Edition)
5-CD Set for Wright's Listening to Music and Listening to Western Music (Sixth Edition)
Popular & Global Music CD for Wright's Listening to Music (Sixth Edition)
Listening to Western Music (with Introduction to Listening CD-ROM) (Sixth Edition)
Introduction to Listening CD for Wright's Listening to Music and Listening to Western Music (Sixth Edition)
