Editorial advisory board -- Maps -- Guide to recordings -- Preface to the Seventh Edition -- The ancient and medieval worlds -- Music in antiquity -- The earliest music -- Music in ancient Mesopotamia -- Timeline -- Music in ancient Greek life and thought -- Music in ancient Rome -- The Greek heritage -- The Christian church in the first millennium -- The diffusion of Christianity -- The Judaic heritage -- Music in the early Church -- Divisions in the Church and dialects of chant -- timeline -- The development of notation -- Music in context : in the monastic Scriptorium -- Music theory and practice -- Echoes of history -- Roman liturgy and chant -- The Roman liturgy -- Music in context : the experience of the mass -- Characteristics of chant -- Timeline -- Genres and forms of chant -- Additions to the authorized chants -- Hildegard of Bingen -- Continuing presence of chant.

Song and dance music in the Middle Ages -- European society, 800-1300 -- Latin and vernacular song -- Timeline -- Trobadour and trouvère song -- Song in other lands -- Medieval instruments -- Dance music -- The lover's complaint -- Polyphony through the thirteenth century -- Early organum -- Aquitanian polyphony -- Notre Dame polyphony -- Timeline -- Polyphonic conductus -- Motet -- English polyphony -- A polyphonic tradition -- French and Italian music in the fourteenth century -- European society in the fourteenth century -- Timeline -- The Ars Nova in France -- Innovations : writing rhythm -- Guillaume de Machaut -- The Ars Subtilior -- Italian Trecento music -- Fourteenth-century music in performance.

The Renaissance -- The age of the Renaissance -- The Renaissance in culture and art -- Timeline -- The musical Renaissance -- Music as a Renaissance art -- Innovations : music printing -- England and Burgundy in the fifteenth century -- English music -- Timeline -- Music in the Burgundian lands -- Music in context : the feast of the oath of the pheasant -- Guillaume Du Fay -- The polyphonic mass -- The musical language of the Renaissance -- Franco-Flemish composers, 1450-1520 -- Political change and consolidation -- Ockeghem and Busnoys -- The next generation -- Timeline -- Josquin des Prez -- Old and new -- Sacred music in the era of the reformation -- The Reformation -- Music in the Lutheran Church -- Timeline -- Music in Calvinist churches -- Church music in England -- Catholic Church music -- Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina -- Spain and the New World -- Germany and Eastern Europe -- Jewish music -- The legacy of sixteenth-century sacred music -- Madrigal and secular song in the sixteenth century -- The first market for music -- Spain -- Italy -- Timeline -- The Italian madrigal -- France -- Germany -- England -- The madrigal and it s impact -- The rise of instrumental music -- Instruments -- Timeline -- Types of instrumental music -- Music in context : social dance -- Music in Venice -- Instrumental music gains independence.

The seventeenth century -- New styles in the seventeenth century -- Europe in the seventeenth century -- Timeline -- From Renaissance to Baroque -- General characteristics of Baroque music -- Enduring innovations -- The invention of opera -- Forerunners of opera -- Timeline -- Claudio Monteverdi -- The spread of Italian opera -- Innovations : singer-power and singer-worship-the diva -- Opera and drama and as theater -- Music for chamber and church in the early seventeenth century -- Italian vocal chamber music -- Catholic sacred music -- Timeline -- Lutheran Church music -- Heinrich Schütz -- Jewish music -- Instrumental music -- Tradition and innovation -- France, England, Spain, and the new world in the seventeenth century -- The French Baroque -- Music in context : the music of the Great Stable -- Timeline -- The English Baroque -- Spain and the New World -- French style and national traditions -- Italy and Germany in the late seventeenth century -- Italy -- Timeline -- Music in context : the violin workshop of Antonio Stradivarius -- Germany and Austria -- Seeds for the future.

The eighteenth century -- The early eighteenth century in Italy and France -- Europe in a century of change -- Music in Italy -- Timeline -- Music in context : the voice of Farinelli -- Antonio Vivaldi -- Music in France -- Jean-Philippe Rameau -- A volatile public -- German composers of the late Baroque -- Contexts for music -- Johann Sebastina Bach -- Timeline -- George Frideric Handel -- An enduring legacy -- Opera and vocal music in the early Classic Period -- Europe in the mid- to late-eighteenth century -- Innovations : the public concert -- Musical taste and style -- Timeline -- Italian comic opera -- Opera seria -- Opera in other languages -- Opera reform -- Song and church music -- Opera and the new language -- Instrumental music : sonata, symphony, and concerto at midcentury -- Instruments and ensembles -- Genres and forms -- Timeline -- Keyboard music -- Orchestral music -- The singing instrument -- Classic music in the late eighteenth century -- Joseph Haydn -- Timeline -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- Classic music.

The nineteenth century -- Revolution and change -- Revolution, war, and music, 1789-1815 -- Timeline -- Ludwig van Beethoven -- Beethoven's centrality -- The Romantic generation : song and piano music -- The new order, 1815-1848 -- Innovations : musical instruments in the Industrial Revolution -- Romanticism -- Timeline -- Song -- Music for piano -- The romantic legacy -- Romanticism in classic forms : orchestral, chamber, and choral music -- Orchestral music -- Timeline -- Chamber music -- Choral music -- Romanticism and the classical tradition -- Romantic opera and musical theater in midcentury -- The roles of opera -- Italy -- France -- Germany -- The United States -- Timeline -- Opera as high culture -- Opera and musical theater in the later nineteenth century -- Technology, politics, and nationalism -- Music in context : nationalism and exoticism -- Opera -- Giuseppe Verdi -- later Italian composers -- Richard Wagner -- France -- Russia -- Other nations -- Timeline -- Music for the stage and its audiences -- Late Romanticism in Germany and Austria -- Dichotomies and disputes -- Timeline -- Johannes Brahms -- The Wagnerians -- Reaching the audience -- Diverging traditions in the later nineteenth century -- France -- Eastern and Northern Europe -- Timeline -- The United States -- Reception and recognition.

The twentieth century and after -- The early twentieth century -- Modern times, 1898-1918 -- Innovations : recorded sound and its impact -- Vernacular musical traditions -- Timeline -- Modern music in the classical tradition -- Germany and Austria -- Claude Debussy -- The first modern generation -- The avant-garde -- Late romantic or modern? -- Modernism and the classical tradition -- Arnold Schoenberg -- Timeline -- Music in context : expressionism -- Alban Berg -- Anton Webern -- Igor Stravinsky -- Béla Bartók -- Charles Ives -- Composer and audience -- Between the world wars : jazz and popular music -- Between the Wars -- Timeline -- American musical theater and popular song -- The jazz age -- Duke Ellington -- Film music -- Mass media and popular music -- Between the World Wars : the classical tradition -- Music, politics, and the people -- Timeline -- France -- Germany -- The Soviet Union -- The Americas -- The United States -- What politics?

Postwar crosscurrents -- Popular music -- Broadway and film music -- Timeline -- From bebop to free jazz -- Heirs to the classical tradition -- Traditional media -- Serialism -- Nonserial complexity and virtuosity -- New sounds and textures -- The avant-garde -- Quotation and collage -- Band and wind ensemble music -- The end of the millennium -- A global culture -- Timeline -- The changing world of music -- Music in context : digital technologies -- Niches in popular music -- Minimalism and postminimalism -- The new accessibility -- Interactions with non-Western music technologies -- The new millennium -- Glossary -- For further reading -- Credits -- Index.