Musical Encounters

For courses in Music Appreciation and other introductory courses in music. Written on the premise that all music is “legitimate” this text teaches students more than just music appreciation—it draws the typical non-music major into a life-long learning and exploration of music. It focuses on the canon of concert music, but contains numerous examples from other musical venues stressing the pervasiveness of music throughout the world as a significant human expression. Music is discussed in both an aesthetic and a sociological context—including expressions ranging from rap to jazz, early rock “n” roll to folk expressions, and from cultures outside the Western culture to musical masterpieces from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras stemming from European-American traditions.

Table of Contents:
I. FOUNDATIONS FOR EXPERIENCING MUSIC.  1. An Introduction to the Study of Music.  2. The Language of Music.  3. Focus on Listening: Vocal Music from around the World.  4. Musical Performance and the Music Industry. II. ART MUSIC: MUSIC AS INTRINSIC VALUE.  5. Music of the Baroque: The Age of Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi.  6. Repetition and Contrast: The Classical Style.  7. The Spirit of Romanticism.  8. The Expansion of the Romantic Ideal.  9. The Twentieth Century: Winds of Change. 10. Post-Modernism: A New Way of Thinking. III. MUSIC AS A SOCIAL FORCE. 11. The Sociology of Music in Our Time. 12. Music in Religious Thought and Practice. 13. Music and Romance. 14. Music of War and Peace. Appendix A: Glossary of Terms. Appendix B: A Listener's Guide to Musical Criticism. Appendix C: Music History: An Overview of Composers, Forms, and Styles of Music Endnotes.

About the Author :
DAVID NICHOLS, Professor of Musicology and Coordinator of Graduate Studies in Music at Truman State University, is active as a musicologist, a conductor, and a teacher of conducting. Trained as a historical musicologist with a Ph.D. from Indiana University, Professor Nichols has concentrated his research on the shaping forces of musical style in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. His eclectic abilities as a teacher, scholar, conductor, and a clarinetist/saxophonist have had a major influence upon both his interpretation of music and his interest in the sociology of music and its relationship to the world of concert music. His performance experience ranges from orchestral and choral conducting to directing musical theatre, church music, and performing as a jazz musician. David Nichols' professional activities in guiding the music curriculum in liberal studies at his university and being part of Truman State University's Liberal Studies Program development have broadened his personal philosophy toward the study of music in the modern university. Musical Encounters is the result of a life-long interest in teaching students who represent a diverse array of interests, backgrounds, and academic disciplines. It projects the attitude that all music is "legitimate," and should be studied from perspectives that include both aesthetic and sociological considerations.