[.ca] Norton Anthology of Western Music, Volume 2: Classic to ... (ISBN 0393925625)

The 6th edition still sets the standard !:
I remember the First edition of Grout's "A History of Western Music"--it was the main text in use when I was a first year undergraduate student. In fact it was one of the standard texts in use at a large number of colleges. The good news is that I was pleased to see the excellent changes. I didn't have to look far to find my first (1 st) edition Grout ( I've used it still until I purchased this new 6th edition several weeks ago)--there are 101 more pages of text. In reality there is much more to look at as the 1st edition book was only 6 x 9 inches. The new 6th Edition is larger: 7 1/4 by 10 1/2 inches. In addition, there is a highly attractive layout; the best feature? A wonderful highlighted-in-blue area (appearing every 40 pages or so) in which the composers themselves speak about a wonderful range of topics such as Francois Couperin 'On the Union of the Italian and French Styles' or, the great J.S. Bach's description of one the church service's he organized (known as an 'Order of Service') taken from a collection of his memoirs. Lastly, I enjoyed seeing the addition of an overall "Time-Line of Events" which prefaces each unit. This includes not only items from music, but any historical event which remotely affected change in music or musical thought. My singluar critical note is perhaps something which the authors had little time to devote to. The 6th edition ends with composers who, in this reviewer's opinion, were certainly not 'mainstream'--like John Cage (1912-1992) (who's infamous "4'33" is actually a period of four minutes and thirythree seconds in which the 'performer' remains totally silent). Cage was popular in the late 70s more for his extremism than anything else. The last paragraph of the book does state, in effect, that composers are being more sensitive to their audiences. (No doubt! Their INsensitivity nearly killed classical music in the 70s) As with any textbook, deadlines must limit speculation--there will undoubtedly be a 7th edition to address more changes in our musical world. Lastly, the reader should take note that the current author of this work, Claude V. Palisca, is also the author of the "Norton Anthology of Music" which can be used in conjunction with this text. Also, the publisher, W.W.Norton and Co., has a website for readers (which is also mentioned in the text: http://www.wwnorton.com/grout.). The website is still active (I just visited it) and has a wealth of information and listening resources---too bad we didn't have this back in 1967 !

Very good, but not perfect for my purposes:
Grout/Palisca have put together a very well-written and laid out book. From the earliest music through the end of the Romantic era, the text is extroardinarily comprehensive, very engaging, and speaks a language of lucidity and detail. I bought this for a 20th-century music history course, but have ended up using it for the general history course as well. Now, it turns out that the one area in which this book is lacking is the 20th century. Palisca (who wrote the majority of that section) covers a broad range of composers but deals only briefly with them. Instead of focusing on a few of the most important (Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, Webern, Messaien, Cage, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Reich, Glass, and a couple others), he includes (in some detail) many composers whose influence on progressive music has been marginal when compared with others (e.g.Berg, Copland, Hindemith, musical theatre). Jazz, a major contribution to art music, is only given a nod. Certainly, by the end of the twentieth century more music was available to more people than there ever was before. Yet, since we are now in the twenty-first century, I think historians can begin to distinguish the two or three giants from 1900 to 1950, and deal with the rest proportionally.

An excellent concise History of Western Music:
I own used this book, and the anthology and CD's, and used them for my intermediate Music history studies; I still use it as a quick reference or starting point for my current more detailed studies. When I want more detail about a period or specific composers or styles, then there are numurous more detailed books available. I have found it comprehensive in coverage, informative, easy to read and containing enough information without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. I believe there could be more on 20th century composers/techniques, but given the scope of music development for that period, I believe a more dedicated book should be used. I must agree that as a general student text book, it is rather pricey; sadly the CD's are also very useful and NOT cheap either. Still definitely worth buying and keeping as a reference.

Great Reference!:
Before I say anything else, you should know that the everyday price for this 6th edition hardcover book is much less at your local bookstore (not at liberty to state where). Why on earth does Amazon charge so much!? I was delighted to hear that Palisca had released yet another edition of this fine reference on the history of Western art music. I present pre-concert lectures & talks for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival and other local orchestras and I find this reference to be a good starting point for refreshing my knowledge of the historical context behind a piece of music I've been asked to talk about. The writing gets clearer and easier to read with every new edition. I found the 6th edition a very easy read, engrossing and wonderfully thorough given the scope of what it sets out to achieve. Since I want this reference to assist me with historical context, I found that it does a terrific job up to the late 19th century, and is somewhat lacking from then on. The reference treats the late 19th and 20th century on a composer-by-composer basis and doesn't link the overall trends very well. For instance I couldn't find much on why Shostakovich and Prokovief composed as they did, whereas composers of the 18th and 19th centuries are placed in larger trends and movements rather easily. I understand that it takes time and dedicated scholars to reveal the many layers that make up an era and its art, so I am forgiving if still a little frustrated. I was impressed that Palisca set out to have each and every section & composer reviewed by scholars in their respective fields of expertise. For instance, I had read a recently published and excellent book that set out to challenge the generally accepted view on Haydn and his place in history as a composer of symphonies, and that author is referenced as a source for the section on Haydn in this 6th edition. Palisca's desire to be thorough and to reflect the lastest research and thought on composers and their eras makes this 6th edition an even more valuable resource for my personal library. I also found the revised glossary to be outstanding and incredibly helpful!

A concise cure for insomnia:
For better or worse, this is the standard music history text that most college music majors use. For that purpose, I've yet to find anything as complete and concise. It also works well as a reference, when trying to place some composer or composition in the correct historical context. However, as any freshman music student can tell you, the book is also a fantastic cure for insomnia. Reading this book for any purpose other than academic interest is going to be a hard slog, and I wouldn't recommend it.