Chapter Ⅰ About Music 1
Unit 1 What Is Music 1
Further Reading 5
Section A Harmony 5
Section B Variation 7
Unit 2 Does Music Possess"Secret Power"? 9
Further Reading 15
Section A The Cultural Acoustics of Chinese Musical Instruments 15
Section B Instruments of the Orchestra＆Chamber Music 18
Unit 3 Music of Ancient Greece 20
Further Reading 27
Section A A Brief Introduction to Traditional Chinese Classical Music 27
Section B Music and Art of China 30
Chapter Ⅱ The Baroque Period 34
Unit 1 A Brief History of Baroque Music 34
Further Reading 42
Section A Baroque Spirit and Baroque Music Performance 42
Section B General Characteristics of the Baroque Music 50
Unit 2 Johann Sebastian Bach 54
Further Reading 62
Section A Johann Sebastian Bach,Father of Music 62
Section B Antonio Vivaldi 64
Unit 3 George Frideric Handel 70
Further Reading 74
Section A The Glorious History of Handel's Messiah 74
Section B Henry Purcell 78
Chapter Ⅲ The Classical Period 83
Unit 1 Music of the Classical Period 83
Further Reading 89
Section A Haydn and Mozart 89
Section B John Field 95
Unit 2 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 99
Further Reading 107
Section A Symphony with Final Chorus on Schiller's"Ode to Joy" 107
Section B Carl Czerny,The Forefather of Pianoforte Technic 112
Unit 3 Ludwig Van Beethoven 118
Further Reading 122
Section A Felix Mendelssohn,Singer of the Songs Without Words 122
Section B Tchaikovsky,His Life and Music 125
Chapter Ⅳ The Romantie Period 129
Unit 1 Romanticism 129
Further Reading 141
Section A The Parallel Lives of Verdi and Wagner 141
Section B Johannes Brahms 149
Unit 2 Happy Birthday,Frédéric Chopin! 156
Further Reading 163
Section A The Super Power of Franz Liszt 163
Section B Robert Schumann 169
Unit 3 Gustav Mahler:Tragic life,Lavish Music 175
Further Reading 187
Section A Claude Debussy 187
Section B Antonin Dvorak Symphony No.9("From the New World") 195
Chapter Ⅴ The 20th Century 200
Unit 1 What Silence Taught John Cage:The Story of 4′33″ 200
Further Reading 212
Section A Listening to the Twentieth Century 212
Section B Arnold Schoenberg 218
Unit 2 Bela Bartok 224
Further Reading 230
Section A Giacomo Puccini 230
Section B George Gershwin 240
Unit 3 How Stravinsky's Rite of Spring has shaped 100 years of music 246
Further Reading 251
Section A Tradition,the Avant-garde,and Individuality in the Music of Olivier Messiaen 251
Section B John Williams—Composer Extraordinaire 261
Chapter Ⅵ Conductors 266
Unit 1 Toscanini:The Titan 266
Further Reading 273
Section A Herbert Van Karajan,A God Among Conductors 273
Section B A Personal Reminiscence 277
Unit 2 Wilhelm Furtwangler 287
Further Reading 299
Section A Eugene Ormandy 299
Section B Claudio Abbado 303
Unit 3 Leonard Bernstein:a Born Teacher 307
Further Reading 315
Section A The Passion and Pain of Bernard Haitink 315
Section B Erich Kunzel,"Prince of Pops" 320
Chapter Ⅶ Performers 325
Unit 1 Yehudi Menuhin 325
Further Reading 332
Section A Glenn Gould,Weird and Wondrous 332
Section B Arthur Rubinstein,the Artist 337
Unit 2 Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project 343
Further Reading 349
Section A Louis Armstrong:A Cultural Legacy 349
Section B Jascha Heifetz:The Violinist of the Century 351
Unit 3 The Three Tenors 359
Further Reading 364
Section A Vladimir Horowitz,The Famous Supreme Pianist 364
Section B Maria Callas:Voice of Perfect Imperfection 370