if you want to live the entire experience of "the enjoynment of music" you really must buy the norton recordings. They complete themselves into a genuine musical experience

If you love classical music, as I do, this is the book to tell you about what you are listening to. That is, for someone like me who has almost no natural musical ability, but does for some strange reason have a profound appreciation for it. How classical music manages to convey its ineffable beauty, I don't know, but it does. This book allows you to place what you are listening to in its place within the whole field of Western classical music.

This book is enjoyable to read. A person who knows nothing about contemporary classical music can read this book and know about the lives and the music of all of classical music's most important composers. It tells about the distinguishing features of the composer's musical work in general and goes in to more depth on several of modern music's most important compositions. I highly recommend this book.

I found The Enjoyment of Music to be a very easy to understand, easy to work with textbook. The music is laid out chronologically, starting from about the 1100's and going all the way to the present, including such works as Rent, Ragtime, The Lion King, and reference to many popular bands of the day, such as No Doubt, grunge rock, gangsta rap, and an entire section on The Beatles. I did not expect any of this information to be included in this book, but surprisingly, the information about these genres of music not only was mentioned, but also went along with the lessons. I found that the text was written in a way that is intelligent, yet is not impossible to understand. I especially enjoyed how the book was set up to reflect on the accompanying CD-ROM's. The information presented in the textbook was also presented in the CD-ROM, but the information was presented in a slightly different way, which I find refreshing. In case I am unsure of a statement in the textbook, I am able to get the full concept through the CD-ROM, or vice versa.
My only major quip with the text and CD-ROM combination is the glossary. Through this class, I have had many glossaries available to me, but the ones I used mostly were those in the textbook and on the CD-ROM. Unfortunately for me, the definitions in the CD-ROM and in the textbook were exactly the same, word for word. If I misunderstood or was unsure of the specific meaning of a word, I would have to go to a completely different place to get differently worded definition. By including modified definitions on the CD-ROM of those found in the book may be helpful to many people using this text.

who is really interested in understanding the "enjoynment of music" must have this accompany. It completes an amazing musical journey.

I reviewed this book hoping to find a decent introductory overview of the history and basics of music. At the start, this text looked promising. It featured an accompanying interactive CD set with samples of the music overviewed in the text and appeared to cover a wide range of music.

What I found was thoroughly dissappointing - not necessarily the material itself, but the way the book was written. A reoccurring theme of political correctness made me want to gag at times, and at others it prompted only dissapointment at important parts of the history of music that were neglected in the place of politically correct anecdotes about multi-culturalism and entire chapters devoted to obscure composers who are included solely because they happened to be female.

The politically correct themes of this 500 page book ranged from the casual use of extreme PC terminology such as "Before the Common Era" (BCE) instead of the now politically incorrect "Before Christ" (BC) to more bizarre ventures into the realm of modern artistic "Electronic Music." At times the attention paid to modern eccentricism is an embarrassing reflection upon the author in my mind. He names and gives brief biographies of more obscure post modernists, figures in "electronic" music, and neo-romanticist composers than he does for the ENTIRE BAROQUE AND CLASSICAL PERIODS OF MUSIC COMBINED.

The detriment of doing this does not go unnoticed. The author completely neglected any mention whatsoever of the contributions of significant composers including Georg Philip Telemann, Dimitri Kabelevsky, Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan), William Byrd, and Gustav Holst. Similarly the contributions of Correlli, Johann Strauss, Elgar, Couperin, Gluck, CPE Bach, Orff, Borodin, and countless others recieve only brief mentions of a line or two.

Amazingly, after having left out so many significant composers, the author finds room to devote the better part of an entire chapter to the obscure Baroque era harpsichordist Elisabeth-Claude Jaquet De La Guerre and even features a composition of hers, even though she was known more as a musician than a composer and even though her musical contribution was far less than any of the above mentioned composers who were neglected by the author. Jaquet De La Guerre, at best, is an obscure footnote in the history of music, especially compared to giants like Johann Strauss (who was largely neglected) and composers of some of the most significant works of music in history, such as Holst (the Planets), Orff (Carmina Burana), and Corelli (father of the concerto grosso, an important musical form itself that was also discussed in only a sentence or two by the author).

Almost laughably, the author, in light of all his omissions, takes time out to mention modern "ska" music, Curt Cobain, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Ice Cube," Michael Jackson, and the Jefferson Airplane. At least the reader can rest assured that the Jefferson Airplane got paid more attention by the author than one of the most prolific composers in history (Telemann)!

There is a newer version - eighth edition

I had read this book when I was a music student, and thought, at the time, it was one of the most interesting books ever assigned by any teacher. I am now a music teacher and have been recommending this book to the students who came to me asking for a good music appreciation book. To say everyone is happy with the book is to understate the fact. The book, indeed, speaks for itself!

I looked over the Norton Sixth Edition the other day...

Approximately a decade has passed since I used the Fourth Edition Norton Anthology during my undergraduate studies. At that time I sensed that there were two types of English professor: the traditionalist, who was committed to teaching the traditionally accepted great American writers; and, the revisionist, whose mission was to infuse female and minority writers at whatever cost. It seemed to me that the revisionist had been behind the Fourth Edition, given that there were many apparent changes to the American literary canon for what I believed to be for the purposes of political correctness and social change. My suspicions were later confirmed when a visiting Berkley professor, my American Lit professor's friend, admitted that this in fact was not only the goal but "a great responsiblility".

Of course, there is nothing wrong in introducing new writers, who during the preceding decades, because of there gender, race or ethnic background, had been overlooked and not read or studied. However, because there is finite number of pages in a given work, when a new writer is introduced it is at the expense of the older, traditional writer who ends up giving away his pages. In fact, in that course, entitled American Literature, which was a required course for all English Lit majors, we did not read any Twain, no Fennimore Cooper, and no Poe. Instead we were assigned Native American chants, slave writings, and various female authors. Just to reiterate, there is nothing wrong with studying Native American chants, slave writings, and female writers, but we must ask ourselves is it worth pushing some of the traditionally accepted fathers of American literature aside?

Since then I have looked over the Fifth and now Sixth editions and have seen the revisionist's grip tighten. It seems that with every edition there are more decisions made based on politics rather than merit. The canon is being revised and the good folks at Norton believe that it is their duty to do so.

Nevertheless, although it is clear that I am not a disciple of the revisionist, I nevertheless recommend the Norton Anthologies because although they contain plenty of mediocre works, they are nevertheless interwoven among the works of American masters, and it is difficult not to see who is who, regardless of what Professor Stillahippy says.

Allegro: a novel by Machlis seems to be lacking a stylistic approach to novel writing. This is certainly not meritable literature, and seems to parallel many qualities that of a romantic trash novel. Machlis lacks strength in his prose. It is dull, unriveting, and almost defines an immature writer, unaware of his audience. It is no wonder I found this book for three dollars in the bargain section of a bookstore. No bravos here Joseph. Sorry.

As a violinist, and avid reader of all subjects, I found this novel to be quite tasteless. Machlis presents a crude and unartistic manner (I would not call it style) in his prose. The story-line is overly dramatic, gossipy, and almost connotes a soap-opera quality. Machlis should stick to co-writing textbooks, not novels.

This book Allegro: a novel, I think it could've been muchmuch better if there hadn't been so many unecessary sexual scenes, and so much use of profanity. The story itself was fantastic, but too crudely written, I, as a violinist myself, was somewhat disapointed...definetly not reccommended for children!