Product Description

The Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music includes professional recordings (many brand new) of all works in the anthology on two six-CD sets. A Concise Edition of the recordings, with selected works from the anthology on one six-CD set, is also available.
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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87923 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Released on: 2006-01-01
• Formats: Audiobook, Box set, Classical
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 6
• Binding: Audio CD

About the Author
J. Peter Burkholder is Distinguished Professor of Musicology at Indiana University. He is the author of previous editions of A History of Western Music, the Norton Anthology of Western Music, and the Study and Listening Guide. In addition, he has written or edited four books on Charles Ives and has written numerous articles on topics spanning from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of Musicology, Musical Quarterly, 19th-Century Music, Music Theory Spectrum, and other journals. He has served as President, Vice President, and Director-at-Large of the American Musicological Society and on the board of the College Music Society, and his writings have received awards from the American Musicological Society, Society for American Music, and ASCAP.


Claude V. Palisca, late professor of music at Yale University, began his collaboration on A History of Western Music with the Third Edition. Among his many publications are a history of Baroque music and a collection of scholarly essays on Italian Renaissance music.

Customer Reviews

The Standard
If you're a music student at almost any major school (I just finished my undergraduate at Indiana University, for example) you'll most likely need to take a course that uses these CD's as part of its history survey. For that purpose, this set is an excellent collection. These, with their companion Norton Anthology of Western Music, and in conjunction with Grout/Palisca's History of Western Music, make for a thorough survey of the roots and history of Western music. Both the History and the Anthology use these CD's, and make constant references to them. (At least, up until 1750, after which you'll need the second volume)

Having said that, however, i'm afraid that these CD's are limited to their intended purpose. Obviously, there would be absolutely no way to have a comprehensive collection of music and text be affordable to an average college student. As it is, the Grout, Norton, and CD's total about $200 total. However, for that cost they provide an extremely good survey of Western music. A student can follow historical developments through the music, and learn an enormous amount from these CD's. They provide a fairly good cross-section of different styles of major composers, and even a few examples of lesser known composers. One is far less likely to criticize the music of the twentieth century, for example, if one finds that Gesualdo (of the late 16th century) was writing music that was MUCH stranger than anything before the turn of the twentieth century.

For someone outside of the music school (who will most likely be required to buy these anyway), these are also an excellent (and comparatively affordable) way to survey the mainstream and less-mainstream trends in Western music. The recordings are all relatively high-quality, often using historical instruments and interpretations (something important to a student of musical history) and providing a good introduction to classical music.

For that reason, then, i recommend these to the casual listener as a good introduction to Western music. If you seek a "greatest hits" album, these are not that; go buy those Time-Life things they advertise on television. This is rather a serious collection of music from as many different styles as allowable while still maintaining some depth. The only thing that keeps the fifth star empty is the lack (by necessity, though i must admit) of a more wide-ranging selection of music. Despite that, they are still an excellent buy. The casual listener of classical music should find these to be a valuable introduction to the well known, and also the more obscure realms of early music.

Good, comprehensive collection - but horrible packaging.
I used these CDs for a undergraduate Music History class I recently took. They provide a great addition to the Anthology of Music textbook, allowing the listener to hear examples of the music they are studying. This personally made it much easier to understand the material being taught, and the collection is varied and comprehensive enough to give a wide survey of music from the period.

That being said, these CDs obviously aren't meant to be a stand-alone collection. Instead, they provide examples of the music discussed in the Norton Anthology of Music book and are meant to be used with the book. Granted, many of these tracks are beautiful and excellent examples of the music from the period, but for someone looking for a set to casually listen to, I wouldn't necessarily recommend these.

Despite the quality of the music and the collection, I gave this set the rating it did because the packaging is absolutely horrible. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, they are packaged on a printed surface, so little bits of the printing became stuck to my CDs. Unlike that reviewer, I managed to scrape the pieces off and the discs worked fine, but the CDs were unplayable before, and had I not been extremely careful they could have been scratched. I am sure there are plenty of my fellow students who also had to deal with this immensely annoying problem!

Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music: Ancient to Baroque
It is great. Some of them are very beautiful. I bought this set for my study in the history of music. It is helpful to learn how the western music have evolved, and this is something we should have, especially for conservatory students.