Music in Our World : An Active-Listening Approach

Music in Our World is the first text in music appreciation completely devoted to the study of music elements and to investing students with active listening skills.

The text examines each musical element from a number of angles - completely integrating world music throughout the discussion. The three chapters on Melody, for example, cite the work of Hildegard of Bingen, Ravi Shankar, and Giacomo Puccini.

This unique, elements-based approach engages students in actively listening to the broadest range of music available for music appreciation.

Gary White holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Michigan State University. At his retirement in 1994 he was Distinguished Professor of Music at Iowa State University, where he developed and administered the music theory curriculum and established the electronic and computer music studio. For a number of years he was also in charge of music listening courses for the general student at Iowa State. Dr. White is the composer of over fifty published musical compositions and the author of Music First! (a music fundamentals textbook) and Instrumental Arranging (a textbook for orchestration and arranging), both published by McGraw-Hill. He has been awarded the U.C. Berkeley Medal by the University of California at Berkeley, was named a National Arts Associate by Sigma Alpha Iota, and has held a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. His compositions have won many prizes and awards, including the Toon van Balkom Prize and the Shenandoah/Percussion Plus Prize.

David Stuart is Associate Professor of Music at Iowa State University and principal trombonist of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra. He received his DMA in trombone pedagogy and performance from the University of Iowa and studied at the Akademie fur Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria. Dr. Stuart teaches the low brass studio at Iowa State University, the undergraduate non-major listening course, and a course on the history of rock ’n’ roll. Iowa State named him an Outstanding Teacher at the Introductory Level in 1999. He is currently pursuing research on the influence of Celtic folk music n recent popular music. Dr. Stuart has articles in the International Trombone Association Journal, National Associations of College Wind and Percussion Teachers, The School Muscian, and several publications for the Yamaha Corporation. He is the editor of an Italian baroque chamber music series published by Nova Music, London. Dr. Stuart is a Yamaha performing Artist.

Elyn Aviva is an anthropologist as well as a professional writer and editor. She earned a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Princeton University and a Master of Divinity degree from Iliff School of Theology. She has been a tribal planner for the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, worked as the editor an international high-technology newsletter, taught religious studies, and publised a book on the Camino de Santiago, a 1000-year-old pilgrimage road across northern Spain. Dr. Aviva has a long-standing interest in comparative religion and has published articles in various national magazines on labyrinths, pilgrimage, sacred sites in Europe, and the reinvention of tradition. She is an avid listener to musics from all parts of the world and enjoys exploring their cultural context.