The Enjoyment of Music

This textbook was required for my college's "Enjoyment of Music" class. The reason I am writing this review is to warn others that THE BOOK DOES NOT COME WITH THE 4-CD SET that is absolutely essential to learning the material. It does come with a DVD that has been useful, but I had to purchase the CDs separately, after the class had already begun.

This product was exactly as it was described, in excellent condition. It arrived in a timely fashion. I was very satisfied with this transaction.

This whole new text book is cheaper than a used one in my school's bookstore.

In response to "a reader's" review, Holst and Orff did not contribute to the larger schema of music history. Although a work like "Carmina Burana" is significant only because it's been rehashed over in dramatic parts of a film, it has little value in terms of delineating trends in music. I only partially agree with his/her assessment of J.-de-la-Guerre because her work is used more to show a common example of highly ornamented French harpsichord music, rather than the composer herself. This is a well-organized book, giving a survey (keyword: SURVEY) of Western music, which means that if you want to learn about Elgar, read a book on him.

I found The Enjoyment of Music to be a very easy to understand, easy to work with textbook. The music is laid out chronologically, starting from about the 1100's and going all the way to the present, including such works as Rent, Ragtime, The Lion King, and reference to many popular bands of the day, such as No Doubt, grunge rock, gangsta rap, and an entire section on The Beatles. I did not expect any of this information to be included in this book, but surprisingly, the information about these genres of music not only was mentioned, but also went along with the lessons. I found that the text was written in a way that is intelligent, yet is not impossible to understand. I especially enjoyed how the book was set up to reflect on the accompanying CD-ROM's. The information presented in the textbook was also presented in the CD-ROM, but the information was presented in a slightly different way, which I find refreshing. In case I am unsure of a statement in the textbook, I am able to get the full concept through the CD-ROM, or vice versa. My only major quip with the text and CD-ROM combination is the glossary. Through this class, I have had many glossaries available to me, but the ones I used mostly were those in the textbook and on the CD-ROM. Unfortunately for me, the definitions in the CD-ROM and in the textbook were exactly the same, word for word. If I misunderstood or was unsure of the specific meaning of a word, I would have to go to a completely different place to get differently worded definition. By including modified definitions on the CD-ROM of those found in the book may be helpful to many people using this text.