Author Description

A History of Music in Western Culture 2/e is based on the premise that the best way to convey the history of Western music is to focus squarely on the music. Organized around a carefully selected repertory of works, this text integrates the requisite names, dates, and concepts around specific compositions. Once familiar with a representative body of music, students can better grasp the evolution of musical style and music's changing uses within the Western tradition. Even more importantly, they will have a sound basis from which to explore other musical works and repertories. This text builds its narrative around the core repertory represented in the Anthology of Scores and the corresponding sets of compact discs. Mark Evan Bonds wrote A History of Music in Western Culture to help students to gain a broad understanding of the nature of music, its role in society, and the ways in which these have changed over time. This text seeks to challenge students to think critically about its subject. The history of music is too often presented (and learned) as one long series of indisputable facts. The author integrated into this text enough primary source documents: excerpts from composers' letters, contemporary reviews, theoretical treatises, and the like to demonstrate the ways in which the raw materials of history can be open to conflicting interpretations. Indeed, the most interesting historical issues tend to be precisely those about which experts disagree.