Gives students a broad overview of Western music from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, with emphasis on late Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modernist styles. Enhances the musical experience by developing listening skills and an understanding of diverse forms and genres. Major composers and works placed in social and cultural contexts. Weekly lectures feature demonstrations by professional performers, and introduce topics to be discussed in sections.

This Music Appreciation textbook was created under an ALG Round Five Textbook Transformation Grant. The original copy was presented in five modules, which are provided as separate files.

Authors' Description:

"The author of this text has intentionally kept it general in nature in order to create a platform for those who want to expand content into more in depth studies of the mentioned concepts and traditions. I believe that appreciation of any subject comes from open-minded exposure to that topic. With the arts this generally must happen at a moment when the message and meaning of the work resonates naturally with the appreciator.

Each instructor of music appreciation brings a unique expertise in differing genres. I encourage you to utilize this text along with musical examples of your choice. The music appreciation specific goals (found in the syllabus) vary between individual classes as the instructors see fit. These goals will be achieved by those who have competently met all of the requirements of the course. For the course that this text accompanies the goals for each student are:

To gain basic exposure to the elements of music and their treatment in music
To learn historical and cultural signifiers in a diverse body of music • To approach listening to music actively/analytically and to reflect on the experience
To understand the factors that contribute to musical style in their own music and music presented in the course
To gain knowledge about differing musical aesthetics and trends
To become more knowledgeable and sensitive to varied human expression through music
If we endeavor together to reach these course goals the successful student will be able to:

Describe elements of music that s/he hears, employing correct musical terminology
Place music into an appropriate historical and cultural context
Listen critically and discuss a wide variety of musical styles
Analyze the stylistic features of a diverse group of musical styles
Identify nationalistic tendencies in musical expression
Identify musical diversity and aspects of our global society"
Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.

This text covers basic elements and vocabulary of music; appreciation and understanding of diverse styles of music past and present; developing listening skills. Includes opportunities for experiencing music (recorded and/or live).
I. Music Fundamentals
II. History of Western Music before 1600
III. History of Western Music after 1600
IV. Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries
V. Listening to Genres
VI. Music of Louisiana, the Americas, and the World

Welcome to Music 1300, Music: Its Language History, and Culture. The course has a number of interrelated objectives:
1. To introduce you to works representative of a variety of music traditions.These include the repertoires of Western Europe from the Middle Ages through the present; of the United States, including art music, jazz, folk, rock, musical theater; and from at least two non-Western world areas (Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Indian subcontinent).
2. To enable you to speak and write about the features of the music you study,employing vocabulary and concepts of melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre,and form used by musicians.
3. To explore with you the historic, social, and cultural contexts and the role of class, ethnicity, and gender in the creation and performance of music,including practices of improvisation and the implications of oral and notated transmission.
4. To acquaint you with the sources of musical sounds—instruments and voices from different cultures, found sounds, electronically generated sounds; basic principles that determine pitch and timbre.
5. To examine the influence of technology, mass media, globalization, and transnational currents on the music of today.
The chapters in this reader contain definitions and explanations of musical terms and concepts,short essays on subjects related to music as a creative performing art, biographical sketches of major figures in music, and historical and cultural background information on music from different periods and places.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/music-its-language-history-and-culture

Begins with the premise that the 1960s mark a great dividing point in the history of twentieth-century Western musical culture, and explores the ways in which various social and artistic concerns of composers, performers, and listeners have evolved since that decade. Focuses on works by classical composers from around the world. Topics to be explored include: the impact of rock, as it developed during the 1960s-70s; the concurrent emergence of post-serial, neo-tonal, Minimalist, and New Age styles; the globalization of Western musical traditions; the impact of new technologies; and the significance of music video, video games, and other versions of (digital) multimedia. Interweaves discussion of these topics with close study of seminal musical works, evenly distributed across the four decades since 1960. Works by MIT composers included.

Above all, this course is meant to help students grow in their love for music in general. This book presents how music has evolved over time, technically and emotionally, and how it is a vital part of the human existence. Music has been a part of the existence of human beings for as far back as human history can confirm.

This text provides just a small sampling of some of the various musical styles and traditions that might be found, though the skills developed in this course can be applied to any type of music.

Table of Contents
I. Introduction
1. Fundamentals
2. Classifying Instruments

II. Place
3. Ozark Music
4. Eurovision Song Contest
5. Highlife

III. Identity and Politics
6. Hip Hop
7. Chimurenga

IV. Theatre
8. Jingju
9. Kabuki

V. Dance
10. Isicathamiya
11. Hula
12. Bhangra
13. Capoeira

VI. Religion and Spirituality
14. Sema
15. Bira

We will study not only art and music to better understand these forms, we will also study where those forms came from and the cultural and economic impact they had on the public. We will also learn about how the artists and musicians dealt with or got around gatekeepers, along with who could get access to these forms of art and music.

Welcome to Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context! Although this book is intended primarily for use in the college music appreciation classroom, it was designed with consideration for independent learners, advanced high school students, and experienced musicians. That is to say, it includes enough detail that expert guidance is not required and is written using broadly-accessible language. At the same time, it addresses advanced topics and positions music as a serious object of study.

Table of Contents
Unit 1 - Music as a Field of Practice and Study

Chapter 1: Music in Human Life
Chapter 2: The Elements of Music
Unit 2 - Music for Storytelling

Chapter 3: Music and Characterization
Chapter 4: Sung and Danced Drama
Chapter 5: Song
Chapter 6: Stories without Words
Unit 3 - Music for Entertainment

Chapter 7: Listening at Public Concerts
Chapter 8: Listening at Home and at Court
Unit 4 - Music for Political Expression

Chapter 9: National Identity
Chapter 10: Support and Protest
Unit 5 - Functional Music

Chapter 11: Music for Spiritual Expression
Chapter 12: Music for Moving
Unit 6 - Evaluating Music

Chapter 13: What is Good Music?

“Sound Reasoning” is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course.

Table of Contents
1. Sound Reasoning: A New Way to Listen
2. How Music Makes Sense
3. Listening Gallery: How Music Makes Sense
4. Musical Emphasis
5. Listening Gallery: Musical Emphasis
6. Musical Form
7. Listening Gallery: Musical Form
8. Expository and Developmental
9. Listening Gallery: Expository and Developmental
10. Overall Destiny
11. Listening Gallery: Overall Destiny
12. Time's Effect on the Material
13. Listening Gallery: Time's Effect
14. Summary: A Quick Guide for Listening
15. Making Music Modern
16. Listening Gallery: Making Music Modern
17. Conclusion: What is Music Trying to Express?
18. Part II: Hearing Harmony
19. Part III: The Language of Transformation

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.

Revised and Corrected Edition by Jonathan Kulp, 2017. Understanding Music is a CC-licensed Music Appreciation Textbook from GALILEO Open Learning Materials. I decided to make my own edition of this book because I was very much interested in adopting a free, Creative-Commons-licensed Music Appreciation textbook, but the only format in which it is available from Galileo is PDF, which is inappropriate for small devices and does not meet basic accessibility requirements such as the ability to change the font size. If you would like to download the original PDF, please visit their page: http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/arts-textbooks/1/