Introduction to Music of the Western World

Ingredients of Music
Chapter 1: The Composer, Performer, and Listener
Chapter 2: Music Perception
Chapter 3: Rhythm and its Components
Chapter 4: Pitch and its Components
Chapter 5: Form and Structure
Chapter 6: Instrumental Timbre
Chapter 7: Vocal Timbre
Chapter 8: The Performers: Soloists, Ensembles, and Interpretation
Chapter 9: Large Vocal Ensembles
Chapter 10: Large Instrumental Ensembles

European Origins of Concert Music
Chapter 11: Medieval and Renaissance Music
Chapter 12: Baroque Music
Chapter 13: Classical Music
Chapter 14: Beethoven: Classicism to Romanticism
Chapter 15: Early Romantic Music
Chapter 16: Romantic Opera
Chapter 17: Late Romantic Music
Chapter 18: Nationalism
Chapter 19: Impressionism
Chapter 20: Stravinsky and the Twentieth Century

American Music of the Last 100 Years
Chapter 21: American Music before 1920
Chapter 22: American Music 1920-1929
Chapter 23: American Music 1930-1939
Chapter 24: American Music 1940-1949
Chapter 25: American Music 1950-1959
Chapter 26: American Music 1960-1969
Chapter 27: American Music 1970-1979
Chapter 28: American Music 1980-1989
Chapter 29: American Music 1990-1999
Chapter 30: American Music 2000-2009
Chapter 31: American Music 2010-2018

The Napster subscription was really nice and a fun element to learning. The textbook format has to be one of my favorites ever, straight to the point and easy to understand. It makes it easy for students to actually want to learn the information instead of just cramming it.
- Student

I really enjoyed this book and how easy it was to read the information and be able to actually retain the information, it wasn’t full of non-useful info and therefore I actually enjoyed the chapters. Most text books offer too much, this one is perfect.
- Student

I really appreciated the comprehensive nature...  The first page and a half that outlines important events sets the tone of the chapter, engages the reader, and makes them begin to think about the possible connections/influence these events may have had on the music of this time.   It was also fairly inclusive, with valuable selections from defining artists and their respective genres. The links were also very helpful and I had no problem bringing them up. From a student's perspective, I felt this chapter did its job in helping me achieve the SLO's. Overall it is both thorough and concise, making it easy for readers to identify the main points of each paragraph and the significance of the examples being used.
- Zacharia Tayler Ayin

If you want to really learn about history through the generations one would be smart to read this! A lot of the songs you mentioned are songs that you hear in the background of movies, on commercials and a list of remakes. A lot of the artists are so much of a legend that although you may not have their album you for sure know their name. 
- Linda Byrd

I absolutely love all of this!!! You have done an amazing job and I can't wait to read more.  I didn't think I would enjoy reading this as much as I did. Unfortunately many people get the facts all wrong when it comes to the history of music and you Professor nailed it! Everything is so spot on, and a lot of your personal feeling attached made it that much better. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. 
– Danielle Watson

It was wonderful to read. …you made each genre or song feel like I was meeting a new character in a novel. It was wonderful to hear music and musical scores spoke about as if they were living breathing beings. It made me want to read on. I kept saying to myself “will he mention....?” on several occasions during the reading of the chapter. I was waiting to hear my favorite “characters “ described by you. And, you never failed. It was wonderful and I’m excited for your newest book. 
 – Jacque Alexander

…There were no dull moments as I found myself highly engaged while reading, which can be tough sometimes with music history, but definitely not with this! I hope I'll get the opportunity to read more of this at some point. I really like the way you talk about different songs … I haven't heard music history spoken about like that before and it was really cool to read! Overall well done, thank you for giving the class an opportunity to check that out!
- Sophia Milne  

I really love this chapter! I love how you included pictures and lots of links to give additional information and visuals. I love how you bolded the main points which makes it easier to navigate important information.  All of the links seemed to work for me. This is a very detailed chapter. I enjoyed reading it :)
– Inna Lyubezhanin

 After reading the whole chapter, I was really impressed how the author managed to combine the music and history in the same story. It was very interesting to follow the most important events in the history along with the progression in the music world. The author pays specific attention to the relationships and reasons why particular artists and genres emerged at that period of time. The contribution of each major singers and bands are well described along with good examples of the most popular songs.
–Vera Gusacinschi

That was a great read.
– Chris Tillery

I really liked reading this because it had so much interesting information.  I like that you included pictures to help us understand the text better. I also loved that it was very detailed. I love the whole format of this reading.
 – Veronika Mordovina

This was a great read about music and its history. The author highlights relationships and reasons why artists emerged in that time period. …good examples of popular songs of the time. This reading helped my understanding of the time frames of these great artists and the links made the information easy to find.
– Taylor Snell

I really enjoyed this chapter and how it covered so much information and multiple decades but the organization made it still easy to read. I think the chapter is very informative overall and the bolding to break up the text is very well used. A job well done. 
– Roberto Carlos Plasencia

 I found this chapter to be very interesting. I have been taking most of my classes online and at times the assigned text is just something I dread reading. This…was well structured, broken into sections and it was an easy yet informative read.
- Yekaterina Martynyuk

I like how you first started out with explaining what was going on in the [chapter] so it really sets the tone and an image so people can understand what the music is about. While reading though the chapter I enjoyed all the pictures. It kept me interested to see what the next picture would be and to better understand the times and what artists were like back then. It was a very interesting chapter with a lot of good detail!
 –Zoe Lewis

I really appreciate how you intertwined music and history together, it gives the reader a background. …concise, to the point and interesting. I loved the reading and broadcast list at the beginning. I also enjoyed the way you separate each topic. The definition list at the end is great! I particularly liked the historical intro of that era, followed by the different genres before diving into different artists and movies of that time.
– Adriana Alvarado Escobar

This is actually one of my favorite posts of the semester! The information and connections between the era was exciting and fascinating to read! The chapters were well-detailed and the wording was easy to understand and follow. A lot of the artists that were mentioned were people I have heard about and know their music. 
– Katherine Hypolite

I really enjoyed reading this chapter. What I found most interesting was that it correlated with two of my other classes; Art History and Women's History. It caught me off guard to see the Pop art of the banana drawn by Andy Warhol for The Velvet Underground and Nico. The text was easy to understand and I found the information very intriguing. I am a visual learner so the images were great for introducing the artist/song. Additionally, the links allowed me to further explore them individually and expand my knowledge on topic. 
- Yulia Gorelkin

I like that the chapter gives a detailed overview of this time period, not just from a music standpoint but different cultures as well. It helps us understand what’s going on from a cultural perspective. I also like that there are links provided so that readers can better understand and listen to music that was well-known/popular from this time period. Overall it was very easy to read along and I think the bolding of words also helps keep the reader on track.
– Lauri Estrada

I really enjoyed reading this chapter as I was super interested after every page. I learned lots of new information and details that I did not know before. I also like how you added pictures to help the reader visualize what the singer/group looks like and how they presented themselves to their audience.
- Joanna Gergiannakis​