Synopsis
Presenting music in its cultural context in a way that is clear and easy to understand, MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE offers detailed discussions of 224 works of music, covering all the major musical styles, genres, and composers in 83 brief yet intriguing chapters. The book places music in the context of the politics, personalities, arts, and humanities of each period of Western history. The importance of the cultural setting of many composers and genres is evidenced by such chapters as "Richard Strauss in Berlin," "Johann Sebastian Bach: Vocal Music in Leipzig," and "Music in Medieval Paris: Polyphony at Notre Dame."
About the Authors
Craig M. Wright received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in 1966 and his Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University in 1972. He began his teaching career at the University of Kentucky and for the past forty years has been teaching at Yale University, where he is currently the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Music. At Yale, Wright�s courses include his perennially popular introductory course, Listening to Music (also part of the offerings of Open Yale Courses); his large lecture course Exploring the Nature of Genius; and most recently his Coursera course Introduction to Classical Music. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on composers ranging from Leoninus to Bach. Wright has also been the recipient of many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Einstein and Kinkeldey Awards of the American Musicological Society, and the Dent Medal of the International Musicological Society. In 2004, he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago. And in 2010 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining fellow inductee, banjo player Steve Martin. In addition to LISTENING TO MUSIC and LISTENING TO WESTERN MUSIC, EIGHTH EDITION, Wright has also published THE ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC, SECOND EDITION; LISTENING TO MUSIC, CHINESE EDITION (Schirmer Cengage Learning/Three Union Press, 2012), translated and simplified by Profs. Li Xiujung (China Conservatory, Beijing) and Yu Zhigang (Central Conservatory, Beijing), both of whom worked with Wright at Yale; and MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE (Schirmer Cengage Learning, 2010), with coauthor Bryan Simms. He is currently at work on a volume titled MOZART�S BRAIN: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF GENIUS.
Bryan R. Simms (Bachelor of Arts, Yale University, 1966; Ph.D., Yale University, 1971) has taught since 1976 at the University of Southern California, where he has been director of graduate studies and is currently chair of the department of musicology. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright Foundation. He is the author of books and articles on topics in twentieth-century music and music theory, including MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (Schirmer 1996) and, most recently, THE ATONAL MUSIC OF ARNOLD SCHOENBERG, 1908-1923 (Oxford University Press).
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