Product Description: Roots of the Classical identifies and traces to their source the patterns that make Western classical music unique, setting out the fundamental laws of melody and harmony, and sketching the development of tonality between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries...read more

Product Description: The story of three men, Scott, Amunsden and Shackleton, who faced extraordinary challenges and hardship, in the race to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Product Description: "I will be a hero, and confiding in Providence, I will brave every danger!" Nelson was 18 in 1776 when he made this declaration. By the time of his death in 1805 he had established himself as a brilliant fighting commander and naval tactician...read more

Analyzing popular music from a musical, rather than a sociological, biographical, or political viewpoint, this book surveys Western popular music in all its forms--blues, ragtime, music hall, waltzes, marches, parlor ballads, folk music--to uncover the common musical language uniting these disparate styles. The author examines the split between "classical" and "popular" music in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and presents a wealth of musical illustrations from the Middle Ages to the 1920s to trace the tangled roots of today's popular music. His provocative, readable, and comprehensive study will inform anyone with an interest in how music evolves in our society.