Customer Reviews

Anthology of Classical Music (The Norton Introduction to Music History)

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This book is a companion to Downs' book Classical Music, and is not meant as a stand alone book.

The book contains 76 selections from the Classic period (c. 1760-1830). About half of the selections are from the big three (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven), while the rest contains selections from composers such as CPE Bach, Clementi, Scarlatti, John Field, and others.

There is no text and analysis of the pieces, just the music. Downs does a good job of selecting different genres of pieces, from string quartets to symphonies to keyboard pieces. The only complaint (not Downs' fault) is that some of the editions are awfully nasty to read, especially those of more obscure composers. Hopefully one day some scholars will clean up those old editions.

I suppose one can purchase this anthology without buying the book, but there's little point. Unless there's something in here you can't find that you HAVE to have, you can get most of this music full-size for much less.

To have spent as much as I did on this book, (over $35!) I thought it would be in good condition, but when I opened it up, half the pages fell out and there is writing all over the book. If I didn't need the book now, for this semester's school class, I would've sent it back and demanded my money back! This is a disgrace to have bought something so expensive from a reputable company (Amazon) and have the book fall apart in a Master's Degree class is nothing short of embarrassing and shame for being taken as a fool. I doubt that I will ever purchase from Amazon again with this kind of garbage! Please check the sellers' stuff as best as you can and don't do business with the people who will give Amazon a bad reputation, which is already tarnished now. Most unfortunate!