Title on accompanying sound disc: Introduction to listening CD for listening to music. Includes index.

I. Introduction to listening. The power of music ; Rhythm, melody, and harmony ; Color, texture, and form -- II. The Middle Ages and Renaissance, 476-1600. Medieval music, 476-1450 ; Renaissance music, 1450-1600 -- III. The Baroque period, 1600-1750. Introduction to Baroque art and music ; Early Baroque vocal music ; Toward late Baroque instrumental music ; The late Baroque : Bach ; The late Baroque : Handel -- IV. The classical period, 1750-1820. Classical style ; Classical composers : Haydn and Mozart ; Classical forms : ternary and sonata-allegro ; Classical forms : theme and variations, rondo ; Classical genres : instrumental music ; Classical genres : vocal music ; Beethoven : bridge to Romanticism -- V. Romanticism, 1820-1900. Introduction to Romanticism ; Romantic music : the art song ; Romantic music : program music, ballet, and musical nationalism ; Romantic music : piano music ; Romantic opera : Italy ; Romantic opera : Germany ; Nineteenth-century realistic opera ; Late romantic orchestral music -- VI. Modern and postmodern art music, 1880-present. Impressionism and exoticism ; Modernism in music and the arts ; Early-twentieth-century modernism ; Russian and Eastern European modernism ; American modernism ; Postmodernism.

Designed to help develop and refine the listening skills of your students and inspire a lifelong appreciation of music, this book covers traditional Western music from medieval to modern, discussing examples from each historical period within their social contexts and the construction of each piece.