A Guide to Musical Styles

This book transports the reader into the spirit of great music so that when he encounters an unfamiliar composition he will feel at home in its style and will have some idea of what to expect. It examines five great periods―the Renaissance Baroque Classic Romantic and Modern―and teaches him the technique of listening so that he can identify the style and form of a piece of music and place it in its proper period. For unless our ears can tell us the difference between a fugue and a sonata the study of names dates and historical trends will be futile.