Discovering Music offers the context that students need to appreciate music, in a concise format that is visually appealing. Written to inspire students to connect intellectually and emotionally with music from the Western canon and beyond, the text is supported by a suite of digital resources, including new How to Listen pedagogy that helps students deepen their listening experience. The book opens with an introduction to the musical elements; the instruments of the orchestra; and a discussion of how to listen to music. New Learn to Listen pedagogy helps students experience and understand the elements of music. Then, each musical era is highlighted in individual parts, with a brief introduction to the key composers and developments that occurred in music and the related arts. Interactive Listening Maps offer guidance to students on how and why to listen to each work.

Table of Contents:
About the Author Preface Acknowledgments PART I. The Elements of Music The Listening Experience Musical Elements: An Overview What Is Classical Music? timeline CHAPTER 1. Pitch, Melody, and Key Pitch Notating Pitch making connections: The Physics of Sound: The Octave Melody making connections: The Ancient Greeks and Consonances Key check your knowledge CHAPTER 2. Rhythm, Meter, Texture, and Dynamics Rhythmic Values Tempo Markings making connections: The Metronome Pulse or Beat Measures Texture Harmony Tonality Dynamics making connections: The Sound of Silence check your knowledge CHAPTER 3. Timbre, Instruments, and Ensembles Timbre The Voice The Family of Musical Instruments Musical Ensembles Benjamin Britten, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946) check your knowledge listening map 1: Benjamin Britten, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra [1946] CHAPTER 4. Musical Form Binary and Ternary Form making connections: Musical Form in Architecture and Painting check your knowledge CHAPTER 5. Learning How to Listen Listening to Hamilton, "My Shot" Mapping the Listening Experience listening map 2: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton, "My Shot" [2015] check your knowledge Part I summary PART II. The Middle Ages Why Listen to Medieval Music? timeline Milestones of the Medieval Era CHAPTER 6. Origins of Medieval Music check your knowledge CHAPTER 7. Music for the Christian Church Gregorian Chant The Divine Office and the Mass Medieval Christmas Music: Viderunt omnes check your knowledge listening map 3: Anonymous, Viderunt omnes ("All the Ends of the Earth") [fifth century] CHAPTER 8. Hildegard of Bingen listening map 4: Hildegard of Bingen, O viridissima virga ("O Greenest Branch") [twelfth century] check your knowledge CHAPTER 9. Léonin and the Rise of Polyphony making connections: Gothic Cathedrals and Polyphonic Architecture check your knowledge listening map 5: Léonin, First Respond from Viderunt omnes ("All the Ends of the Earth") [twelfth century] CHAPTER 10. Secular Medieval Music Musical Instruments Secular Medieval Song check your knowledge CHAPTER 11. Machaut and the Rise of Secular Polyphony check your knowledge listening map 6: Guillaume de Machaut, Puis qu'en oubli sui de vous ("Since you have forgotten me") [ca. 1365] Part II summary global connections: Myanmar: Buddhist Chant and Ritual Music making connections: Music for Celebrations PART III. The Renaissance Why Listen to Renaissance Music? Humanism Rebirth timeline Classical Revival Artists as Individual Creators Transition to Modernity CHAPTER 12. The Development of Renaissance Music makin.g connections: The Renaissance Rediscovers Classical Antiquity check your knowledge CHAPTER 13. Guillaume Dufay and the Franco-Flemish Style making connections: Brunelleschi's Dome listening map 7: Guillaume Dufay, Mass Se la face ay pale, Kyrie [ca. 1450] check your knowledge CHAPTER 14. Josquin Desprez making connections: Lorenzo the Magnificent check your knowledge listening map 8: Josquin Desprez, Ave Maria [ca. 1485] CHAPTER 15. Palestrina and the Counter-Reformation making connections: Martin Luther and the Reformation check your knowledge CHAPTER 16. New Currents: National Styles The Italian Madrigal making connections: Art Imitates Life: The Shocking Music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa The English Madrigal listening map 9: Thomas Weelkes, "As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending" [1601] check your knowledge CHAPTER 17. The Rise of Instrumental Music making connections: The English Reformation listening map 10: William Byrd, "Pavana Lachrymae" for harpsichord solo, based on John Dowland's lute song "Flow My Tears" [ca. 1600] check your knowledge Part III summary global connections: Bali: Gamelan Music making connections: The Gamelan and the West PART IV. The Baroque Why Listen to Baroque Music? Baroque Art and Architecture The Musical Legacy of the Baroque timeline CHAPTER 18. Elements of Baroque Music The Development of Tonality The Basso Continuo Melody, Rhythm, and Dynamics in Baroque Music check your knowledge CHAPTER 19. Claudio Monteverdi and the Rise of Italian Opera making connections: St. Mark's Basilica, Venice making connections: Orfeo and the Rise of the Orchestra listening map 11: Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo, Act III, "Possente spirto" ("O Powerful Spirit"), excerpt [1607] Barbara Strozzi and the Chamber Cantata listening map 12: Barbara Strozzi, "Voglio morire" ("I Wish to Die") from L'Amante segreto (The Secret Lover) [1651] check your knowledge CHAPTER 20. The Spread of Opera Opera in France making connections: Music as Royal Power: Lully at the Court of Louis XIV Henry Purcell and English Opera check your knowledge listening map 13: Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas, Act III, "When I Am Laid in Earth" [1689] CHAPTER 21. Baroque Instrumental Music The Violin Family The Harpsichord The Organ New Musical Genres Arcangelo Corelli The Baroque Concerto listening map 14: Arcangelo Corelli, Trio Sonata in A Minor, Op. 3 No. 10 [1689] check your knowledge CHAPTER 22. Antonio Vivaldi listening map 15: Antonio Vivaldi, Spring from The Four Seasons, Op. 8 No. 1, First Movement [ca. 1725] check your knowledge CHAPTER 23. Johann Sebastian Bach's Life and Career Bach's Early Life and Career Beginnings The Move to Cöthen Final Years in Leipzig making connections: Bach's Children and Wives check your knowledge CHAPTER 24. Bach's Instrumental Music Bach and the Fugue making connections: Fugues beyond Music listening map 16: J. S. Bach, " ("The Roman Saltarello") in A Minor, Op. 6 No. 4 [1841] check your knowledge CHAPTER 37. Orchestral Music Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy making connections: Mendelssohn as Conductor listening map 45: Felix Mendelssohn, Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21 [1826] Hector Berlioz making connections: The Romantics and Opium listening map 46: Hector Berlioz, Fantastic Symphony, Finale, "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath" [1830] check your knowledge CHAPTER 38. Romantic Opera Italian Romantic Opera French Romantic Opera listening map 47: Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, Act III, Canzone,