Anthology of Classical Music (Norton Introduction to Music History)

Rating:
Summary: It is what it is--a companion to Downs' book
Review: This book is a companion to Downs' book Classical Music, and is not meant as a stand alone book.

The book contains 76 selections from the Classic period (c. 1760-1830). About half of the selections are from the big three (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven), while the rest contains selections from composers such as CPE Bach, Clementi, Scarlatti, John Field, and others.

There is no text and analysis of the pieces, just the music. Downs does a good job of selecting different genres of pieces, from string quartets to symphonies to keyboard pieces. The only complaint (not Downs' fault) is that some of the editions are awfully nasty to read, especially those of more obscure composers. Hopefully one day some scholars will clean up those old editions.

I suppose one can purchase this anthology without buying the book, but there's little point. Unless there's something in here you can't find that you HAVE to have, you can get most of this music full-size for much less.