Ideas and Styles in the Western Musical Tradition

I took a graduate music history survey course under the instruction of the author, Douglass Seaton, at Florida State University in the Fall semester of 1997. Though I hold no degree in musicology (all my degrees are in trombone performance), I have found this text to be the perfect reference, both in the context of a survey course, and especially in preperation for diagnostic/preliminary exams.The book is somewhat smaller than either the Grout/Palisca or the Stolba texts (as the book was authored with a one-semester survey course in mind), and perhaps doesn't contain all of the minutia for which the Grout/Palisca "A History of Western Music" is known. The benefit is an extremely readable source, tongue-in-cheek at times, that is still highly detailed, but compelling enough to gain a thorough perspective of the history of western music (historical contexts, performance practices, transitions between defined periods).I have recommended this book to everyone who has asked for my advice for graduate-school entrance/preliminary exam preparation.

This was my music history textbook when I was an undergrad, and I found it so fascinating that I changed my major to musicology and reread the book from cover to cover on my own time.