Customer Reviews

A History of Music in Western Culture

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a general history intended for the academic market, Bonds's contribution ranks as a formidable contender with K Stolba's and Grout/Palisca's works. Visually appealing with many period paintings, illustrations and tables in color, the book also entertains with well-written text which illuminates the cultural context of developing genres.
Composer profiles and "Focus" features break up the text and provide essential insights. Particularly valuable are the "Primary Evidence" highlights which contain extensive quotes from primary resources. Five appendices include "A Guide to Selected Research Materials in Music History" and the set text for the ordinary of the mass with English translation.
Fourteen CDs and two score anthologies (available seperately) complete the perspective on occidental high art music. Nevertheless, the text stands well alone and would complement the library of anyone interested in western art music history.

This is one of the new breed of general music history texts to hit the market in the past decade. Correcting many of the errors made by the Grout and vastly more readable, this text is filled with unique side bars, charts, lists, photographs, time lines, etc. I keep one copy of this at home and one at the office along with Craig Wright and Bryan Simms' Music in Western Civilization (which is my all-time favorite music history text). If you only want to buy one book (and this is not required for a class), purchase the Wright/Simms. If you don't mind spending the extra money, I would purchase the Bonds and the Wright/Simms as a superb addition to any professional musician's library.

I used this book for my undergrad, and it was acceptable. It has most of the information you need, and it's in an easy-to-read format. Unfortunately, this is NOT the standard for music history texts. If you are wanting to fit in with other students from other programs (and in my case, go to grad school in musicology), the Grout is absolutely necessary. The added expense of the Grout is worth it for a truly thorough study. Though the Bonds is adequate, it won't prepare you for anything other than mediocrity.

I bought this edition instead of the newest edition. As a result, I paid ten dollars instead of nearly eighty. I win. Very little has changed between the two editions. Music history is not exactly one of those things that gets completely rewritten in five years. Seller was very prompt in shipping, book arrived in the same condition in which it was listed. Very satisfied with the purchase.

this is just what i needed for my music history class!!!
great shipping time!!!

For information and a clear perspective on Western European (and American) music history, there is not much better. Bonds prefaces each section or era with a "prelude", providing information on the general history of that era outside of the musical world. Then, we see how everything moves together. The overall assessment of Western European Music History is covered meticulously from the Ancients to modern day (or nearly so).

This text book is a really good one. It has a huge amount of information and lots of interesting points and obscure details. The text is accompanied by a lot of full color pictures of composers, manuscripts, maps, and lots of other things. The only issue I had with it was to extremely close look at the music theory part of the history. Half of the book is about the notes that the composers used.