Understanding Music

Jeremy Yudkin was born in England and educated in England and the United States. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Classical and Modern Languages from Cambridge University and his Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Stanford University. He has taught at San Francisco State University, the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Harvard University, and, since 1982, at Boston University, where he is Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, and Associated Faculty of the Department of Judaic Studies and the Center for African American Studies. Dr. Yudkin was also Visiting Professor of Music at Oxford University from 2006 to 2010.

A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Boston University’s Society of Fellows, the Camargo Foundation, and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, he has written articles for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the Journal of Musicology, the Musical Quarterly, Musica Disciplina, and Music and Letters, and contributed to several volumes of essays. His research specialties include the Middle Ages, early Beethoven, jazz, and music of the Beatles. A noted lecturer, Professor Yudkin has given talks and presented papers across the United States and in Europe and Russia. He is the author of eight books on various aspects of music and music history, including Music in Medieval Europe (1989), The Lenox School of Jazz (2006), and Miles Davis: Miles Smiles and the Invention of Post Bop (2008).

1. Brief Table of Contents

2. Full Table of Contents

Chapter 1   Music Around the World

Chapter 2   The Elements of Music

Chapter 3   The Art of Listening

Chapter 4   The Middle Ages: 400-1400

Chapter 5   Renaissance: 1400-1600

Chapter 6   The Baroque Era: 1600-1750

Chapter 7   The Classic Era: 1750-1800

Chapter 8   Beethoven

Chapter 9   The Nineteenth Century I: Early Romantic Music

Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century II: Mid- to Late-Romanticism Music

Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part I: The Classical Scene

Chapter 12 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part II: Jazz, an American Original

Chapter 13 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part III: Popular Music in the United

                 States

Chapter 1 Music Around the World

Introduction to the Study of Music

Music as a Reflection of Society

Listening to Music from Around the World

Conclusion

Chapter 2 The Elements of Music

What is Music?

The Elements of Music

Musical Form

Making Music: Voices

Making Music: Instruments

The Orchestra

Musical Performance

Emotion in Music

Live Performances

Historical Periods and Individual Style

Chapter 3 The Art of Listening

Sound, Rhythm, and Dynamics

Words, “Blue Notes,” Rhythm, Swing, Improvisation

Form, Tempo, Meter, Keys, and Cadences

Keys and Cadences

Chapter 4 The Middle Ages: 400-1400

General Characteristics of Medieval Music

The Music of the Middle Ages

The End of the Middle Ages

Chapter 5 Renaissance: 1400-1600

Life and Times in the Renaissance

Renaissance Music

General Characteristics of Renaissance Music

Music in the Early Renaissance

The Mid-Renaissance

The Late Renaissance

The Counter-Reformation and the Music of Palestrina

Chapter 6 The Baroque Era: 1600-1750

Life in the Baroque Era

General Characteristics of Baroque Music

The Early Baroque (1600-1700)

The Late Baroque (1700-1750)

Chapter 7 The Classic Era: 1750-1800

From Absolutism to Enlightenment to Revolution

General Characteristics of Classic Music

The Classic Meters

Chapter 8 Beethoven

Beethoven’s Life

Beethoven’s Music

Chapter 9 The Nineteenth Century I: Early Romantic Music

The Age of Romanticism

Early Romanticism

Chapter 10 The Nineteenth Century II: Mid- to Late-Romanticism Music

Late Romanticism

Chapter 11 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part I: The Classical Scene

General Characteristics of Twentieth-Century Music

Impressionism and Symbolism

Primitivism

Expressionism

Other Composers Active Before World War II: Bartok, Shostakovich, Britten, Ives, and Copland

Building Bridges

After the War: Modernism, the Second Stage

Postmodernism

Inclusion

Conclusion

Chapter 12 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part II: Jazz, an American Original

The History of Jazz

Chapter 13 The Twentieth Century and Beyond, Part III: Popular Music in the United States

Styles of Popular Music Beginnings: 1850-1950

The Fortunate Fifties

The Turbulent Sixties

The 1970s and 1980s: Variety, Legacy, and Change

The Nineties and Beyond

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