This is the second volume of the Norton Anthology of Western Music. While the first Volume covers Music of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, this one deals with Music from the Classical, Romantic, Contemporary and Modern Periods. The book offers a selection of scores (92 in total) from several composers, from a period that spans over 250 years (earliest score from 1733, latest from 1966). The composers that are covered include (almost) all the "Big Names" of what people usually refer to as "classical" music: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Mendelsshon, Liszt, Chopin, Schubert, Schumman, Bruckner, Rossini, Bellini, Wagner, Verdi, Mahler, Strauss, Debussy, Ravel, and so on (57 in this volume, 152 in total). The only noticeable absences on a first reading of the index are perhaps Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Schostakovitsch. However, given the restrictions of space that are inherent to any written medium, the Anthology still manages to remain quite comprehensive. On the other hand, very few, if any, comments or analyses of the scores are offered for each of the pieces (always following the music). Pieces that involve vocals (i.e. excerpts from operas) are supplemented with an English translation besides than the orginal text. The scores themselves are 'full' scores and not piano reductions. Naturally, this causes some scores that involve rich orchestration (i.e. the first movement of Beethoven's Third Symphony) to be printed in small fonts, which in turn may take its toll in the readability of the music. Still, one always needs to remember the restricions of space that accompany any written medium-it's either small fonts or fewer scores.

Two notes of warning: first, the book is not accompanied by any music. It contains simply the printed scores. A good choice for supplementing the two volume set, is Hannig's Concise History of Western Music with its 4 CD set. Although the CD set does not contain all music of the two volumes, it does contain a good protion of it(about 60-70%) and has a user friendly, easy to understand cross-reference system with the two volumes. Additionally, the book may offer the much needed commentary and background in some cases.
Second note of warning: as any anthology, this one, too, is merely a represenative sample. It is not a 'Greatest Hits' collection-for example you won't find Beethoven's Fifth or Ninth in it, or even the complete score of a large scale piece(i.e. Operas or Symhonies). What is included are excerpts (whole Movements for example), and shorter complete pieces (i.e. Chopin's E-flat Major Nocturne), that from the editors' perspective present a more or less complete landscape of Music from where Vol. 1 concludes and up to today. Naturally, omissions are inevitable, especially when one looks for balance. The four stars (and not five) are mainly because of the choice of scores at some points, at the choice (or omission) of composers at others, and, mainly, for the lack of more comprehensive commentaries and analyses of the pieces.

Does this anthology include the short story entitled "The Most Dangerous Game?"

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.

who is really interested in understanding the "enjoynment of music" must have this accompany. It completes an amazing musical journey.

This text book was used in my music history class. I felt that it provided a fairly comprehensive overview of the span of time and composers it covers. It was especially valuable when used with the accompanying CDs. The info given about each composer and the featured piece was very helpful. Usually, the pieces chosen to represent each composer were good examples and in many cases inspired further study. My only real complaint about this anthology is that they don't always put the whole piece or movement in the book.It would be nice to have a score reference that would be more complete in this way.

Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena is well known its surperb
collection of the old masters, the impressionists and Asian arts.
These collection is only based on the founder, a self-made millionaire Norton Simon's taste.

This book describes how he earned money and spent to the collection. Although he believed only his way of doing things and made a friction everywhere he goes, his talent, money and passion made possible to build the museum titled his name. Many episodes make this book readable and interesting even a reader who isn't interested in Southern California or Art collector.

"In The Odd Women there is not a single major character whose life is not ruined either by having too little money, or by getting it too late in life, or by the pressure of social conventions which are obviously absurd but which cannot be questioned." --George Orwell

George Gissing was a very odd man himself. Despite the fact that all his novels deal with social issues of the day, notably women, money, and class relations, he was neither a socialist nor a social reformer. He simply described in novels what he knew of degredation, misery, and the tortures "respectable" English society inflicted upon its outcasts and marginal figures. In The Odd Women Gissing chose to focus on the predicament of the extra females of Britain's disproporionate population ratio. These were the "odd" women who would never be matched with a man. Gissing's Madden sisters endured a representative sampling of the a dreary employment opportunities available for genteel but impoverished women in the 1890s. Of the two eldest Madden sisters, Alice was a governess until her health broke down; Virginia was lady's companion (poorly-paid drudge to an elderly tyrant) who has suffered from "mental lassitude" and taken to secret drinking. Another sister, a luckless "hard-featured" girl, is dead before the story begins; she taught in a girl's school until she committed suicide in despair. Monica, the youngest and only good-looking sister, spends twelve to sixteen hours a day on her feet in a large dry-goods shop and lives in an unsanitary dormitory with other shopgirls, some of whom supplement their wages by prostitution. Her sisters fear that Monica's health will also break down under this regime, and that she will lose her looks and her chance of marriage.

Enter Miss Rhoda Nunn and Miss Elinor Barfoot, two enterprising women who have founded a school to teach "odd" women business skills to enable them to compete economically, or at least rise above the general level of ill-paid drudgery. Barfoot and Nunn are early feminists; they wish to live and teach other women to live without feeling diminished by their unmarried status. Monica Madden considers enrolling in their school, but she has managed to meet and attract a man, a middle-aged bachelor named Widdowson, whom she marries instead. The substance of the novel involves the wreck of Monica's life following her disastrous marriage, and Rhoda Nunn's struggle to deal with her relationship with a man she is attracted to, but whom she cannot marry or live with without suffering diminishment and the loss of her role as a teacher and leader.

Gissing's book is a serious and sympathetic treatment of the much-discussed "woman question," and written from a point of view somewhat in advance of his time. The Odd Women has been mostly out of print for the last hundred years, and it is to be hoped that the recent appearance of three new editions heralds a long-delayed recognition of its merits.

Outsourcing solution present to us broad and new perspective abaut new trend in the future business.

PC and associated technologies change very rapidly. I am a software engineer and not very hardware savvy, and when I go to Fry's shopping for a PC, I am at a total loss - how much Video memory is adequate, what is a PCMCIA slot that laptops tout, what is SDRAM - what are my alternates, should I get an AMD Athelon or a Pentium Pro, whats USB 2, what are the differences between a TFT LCD and a regular CRT and whats this new Firewire I see advertised these days. This book covers all these and more for the layman. And they are covered well.
You will find this book very useful if you are not very hardware savvy like me. This book is not cheesy - it doesn't cover a lot of topics just to sell. The topics are covered just enough to give you an idea that there is such a thing out there, and if you really want to do a PhD about it, there are detailed books out there.

The language is informal. Its good in a way and bad. Sometimes some statements are not very clear. I also found a good number of typos (I don't know if was the Edition I bought).

But otherwise a good book.

I began reading this book as a textbook when in one of Professor Norton's classes at the University of Delaware, and have repeatedly revisitied it and loaned it over the years. I found it to be a fantastic introduction to the styles of some of the most renowned philosophers. It's a good blend of "light" philosophical reading and diverse points of view on the types of love.