Heritage of music : edited by Michael Raeburn and Alan Kendall.

Includes index.

VOL. I CLASSICAL MUSIC AND ITS ORIGIN : Introduction / Paul Griffiths & Roland De Candé -- Interlude: The Basis of Western Harmony -- Medieval Music / Albert Seay & Denis Stevens -- Interlude: Music at the Court of Emperor Maximilian -- The Renaissance / Alex Harman -- Monteverdi, Opera and Oratorio / John Whenham -- Germany before Bach / Frederick Hudson -- The Italian Baroque / Arthur Hutchings & Eric Cross Interlude: Baroque Stage Machinery -- Music in France in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries / Roger Blanchard and Wilfrid Mellers -- Interlude: Henry Purcell and English Stage Music -- Johann Sebastian Bach / Basil Lam -- Interlude: The Baroque Organ -- George Frideric Handel / Anthony Ford -- The Classical Style / David Wyn Jones -- Interlude: The Orchestra in the Eighteenth Century C.W. Gluck and the Reform of Opera / Julian Rushton -- Interlude: The Keyboard Concerto -- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Julian Rushton -- Joseph Haydn / Peter Brown -- Biographical Dictionary of Composers / Malcolm Boyd & Brain Richardson.

VOL. II THE ROMANTIC ERA : The Age of Beethoven and Schubert -- Otto Biba & Denis Matthews -- Ludwig van Beethoven / Alan Kendall & Basil Lam Interlude: Harpsichord to Pianoforte -- Beethoven's Symphonies / Antony Hopkins -- Beethoven and the String Quartet / Denis Matthews -- Franz Schubert / Otto Biba & Brian Newbould -- Interlude: Goethe and Music -- Schubert's Song / Philip Radcliffe -- Romantic Music / Carl Dahlhaus -- Carl Maria von Weber / Ludwig Finscher -- Interlude - A Revolution in Wind Instruments -- Hector Berlioz / Julian Rushton -- Frédéric Chopin / Philip Radcliffe -- Interlude: The Travelling Virtuoso: Niccolò Paganini -- Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy / R. Larry Todd -- Robert Schumann / Bernard Keeffe -- The Operatic Tradition / Robert Donington -- Interlude: The Romantic Ballet -- Gioacchino Rossini / Benedict Sarnaker -- Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti / Roger Parker & William Ashbrook -- Interlude: Scribe and the Paris Opéra -- Giuseppe Verdi / Roger Parker -- Giacomo Puccini / William Ashbrook -- Biographical Dictionary of Composers / Virgil Pomfret, Benedict Sarnaker & Celia Duffy.

VOL. III The NINETEENTH-CENTURY LEGACY : National Styles in the Nineteenth Century: France and Russia / Martin Cooper -- Franz Liszt / Hamish Milne -- Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Paul Griffiths -- Interlude: The Russian Ballet -- Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin / Justin Connolly -- Modeste Petrovich Mussorgsky / Paul Griffiths -- Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov / Roy Wilkinson -- Interlude: A Nordic Romantic Nationalist: Edvard Grieg -- César Franck / Roy Wilkinson -- Camille Saint-Saëns / Ronald Crichton -- Music in the Era of the Emperor Franz Joseph / Heinz Becker -- Richard Wagner / Robert Anderson -- Interlude: The Bayreuth Festspielhaus -- Johannes Brahms / Heinz Becker -- Interlude: The Music Critic: Eduard Hansllick -- Anton Bruckner / Constantin Floros -- Interlude: The Austro-Hungarian Empire -- Bedřich Smetana / Kurt Honolka -- Antonín Dvořák / Kurt Honolka -- Interlude: The Songs of Hugo Wolf -- Gustav Mahler / Constantin Floros -- Richard Strauss / Heinz Becker -- Biographical Dictionary of Composers / Noel Broome & Gudrun Becker.

VOL IV MUSIC IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY : Music of the New Century / Felix Aprahamian -- Gabriel Fauré / Ronald Crichton -- Interlude: The Conservatoire -- Claude Debussy / Felix Aprahamian -- Interlude: The Spanish Renaissance -- Ravel, Roussel, Satie and Les Six / Felix Aprahamian -- Sergei Rachmaninov / Robert Threlfall -- Jean Sibelius / Robert Layton -- Interlude: The History of Recorded Sound -- Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams / Jerrold Northrop-Moore & Michael Kennedy -- Leoš Janáček and Zoltán Kodály / Malcolm Rayment -- Meaning and Function in Twentieth-Century Music / Wilfrid Mellers -- Interlude: The Growth of Jazz -- Igor Stravinsky / Richard Orton -- Interlude: The Revival of Early Music -- Schoenberg, Berg and Webern / Paul Griffiths -- Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith / Hamish Milne -- Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich / Geoffrey Norris -- Charles Ives and Aaron Copland / Peter Dickinson -- Interlude: Opera in the Twentieth Century -- William Walton, Michael Tippett and Benjamin Britten / Michael Kennedy -- Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez / Robert Sherlaw Johnson -- Edgard Varèse and Karlheinz Stockhausen / Paul Griffiths -- Interlude: Rock Music in the Seventies -- Electroacoustic Music / Richard Orton -- Biographical Dictionary of Composers / Noel Broome -- Cumulative Index.

"These four illustrated volumes present a complete history of Western music from the Middle Ages to the present day. Each volume is a self-contained survey of a period, as well as an integral part of the whole. Written by distinguished authorities, Heritage of Music is designed as a work for either reference or continuous reading. Within the span of the four volumes the music of the past 300 years is discussed mainly in terms of the major composers, while these accounts are complemented by chapters on general musical developments. In addition, each volume contains a biographical dictionary of composers not covered in the main chapters, and an index for easy reference. The four volumes also feature short sections on a range of subjects that fall outside the main chapter headings. These include the history and development of particular instruments, music for ballet and theatre, and historical events which have influenced composers in specific periods. Each volume contains over 500 illustrations in colour and black and white, which bring to life the composers and musicians, and the intellectual and cultural background, and offer parallels in style between visual and musical art. " -- Nielsen