Music History Review

This page is intended to give a quick overview of preparation for UWMs graduate music history diagnostic/comprehensive exams. It should also be helpful as a general review of Music History.

1. Start General. Make sure you know what historical periods composers belong to. Chronological charts of periods and composers are useful for this.
   • Old editions of "A History of Western Music" text and score anthology
   • Studying Music History / David Poultney
   • Chronology from "The Story of Classical Music" (notes from Naxos Audio Book)
     (original can be found here - UWM ID and Password Required)
   • Chronological List of Composers, World Events, and Principal Figures in Literature and the Arts 1300-1989 (pp. 555-561 from The Enjoyment of Music (sixth edition)
   • Oxford history
2. Get more specific. Focus on your weak areas.
   • History of Western Music Text
     • History of Western Music
       • Newest edition of text and anthology is always on permanent reserve behind the Music Library Service Counter
       • Older editions are in the stacks
     • Publishers (WW Norton & Company) Study Space
     • Concise History of Western Music, 2nd Edition Online Tutor
     • Norton anthology of Western music
   • Norton Anthology of Western Music
     • Selections referenced in The Norton Anthology of Western Music (5 ed). by Liz Dutton*
       (Alexander Street Press Music Editor)
   • Period specific texts
     • Medieval
       • Medieval music / Richard H. Hoppin.
       • Anthology of medieval music / Richard H. Hoppin, editor.
       • Companion to medieval and renaissance music / edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows.
       • Medieval music / edited by W. Thomas Marrocco and Nicholas Sandon.
       • Music in medieval Europe / Jeremy Yudkin.
     • Renaissance
       • Renaissance music: music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 / Allan W. Atlas.
       • Anthology of renaissance music: music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 / Allan W. Atlas, editor.
       • Music in the age of the Renaissance / Leeman L. Perkins.
       • Music in the Renaissance / Howard Mayer Brown, Louise K. Stein.
       • The rise of European music, 1380-1500 / Reinhard Strohm.
       • Companion to medieval and renaissance music / edited by Tess Knighton and David Fallows.
     • Baroque
       • Baroque music: music in Western Europe, 1580-1750 / John Walter Hill.
       • Music in the seventeenth century / Lorenzo Bianconi ; translated by David Bryant.
       • A history of baroque music / George J. Buelow.
       • Music of the Baroque / David Schulenberg.
       • Music of the Baroque : an anthology of scores / [compiled and edited by] David Schulenberg.
       • Baroque music / Claude V. Palisca.
       • Music in late Renaissance & early Baroque Italy / Tim Carter.
     • Classical
       • Classical music: the era of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven / Philip G Downs.
       • Anthology of classical music / edited by Philip G. Downs.
       • Music in the classic period / [by] Reinhard G. Pauly.
       • The age of Mozart and Beethoven / Giorgio Pestelli ; translated by Eric Cross.
       • Music and the French enlightenment : reconstruction of a dialogue, 1750-1764 / Cynthia Verba.
     • Romantic
       • Romantic music: a history of musical style in nineteenth-century Europe / Leon Plantinga.
       • Anthology of romantic music / Leon Plantinga.
       • Nineteenth-century romanticism in music / [by] Rey M. Longyear.
       • Nineteenth-century music / Carl Dahlhaus ; English translation by J. Bradford Robinson.
       • The Cambridge history of nineteenth-century music / edited by Jim Samson.
     • Contemporary
       • Twentieth-century music: a history of musical style in modern Europe and America / Robert P. Morgan.
       • Anthology of twentieth-century music / Robert P. Morgan, editor.
       • Soundings : music in the twentieth century / Glenn Watkins.
       • Concert music of the twentieth century : its personalities, institutions, and techniques / Mark A. Radice.
       • Twentieth-century music: an introduction / Eric Salzman.
       • The Cambridge history of twentieth-century music / edited by Nicholas Cook and Anthony Pople.
3. Find threads throughout the entire course of music history.
   • Big picture questions from the back of the MUSIC704 chart go here.
   • Issues of music and text in vocal music
   • Deveopement of forms over time

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Last updated on April 22, 2013.

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