The Young Person's History of Music, Book 2

The second in a series of two narrative histories of music for upper elementary and middle school students. Book 2, while not dependent on the first book, continues the story of music from the Baroque period of music through the Classical and Romantic periods. Students will befriend the great masters of music history. Nearly every story contains sheet music examples to see the changes in music and musical style over time. Delightfully interspersed throughout this story of music are poems and paintings that relate to the musical subject being discussed. Various paintings are followed by a brief account of the artist. In this way, the reader is introduced to three great fields of art—literature, music, and painting—in an engagingly connected cycle of related thought. 

The authors' description testifies to the living nature of these books. They say, "Song and story have ever traveled hand in hand. Charming pictures heighten the interest of a subject by firing the imagination. The presence of the printed music in this book affords still another means of bringing the art itself before the student. . . . The aim of the [books] is, first of all, to make the text good literature—pure, simple, direct, dignified, and inspiring. It is pure because it contains the best forms of English expression; simple, because it uses familiar words in the most familiar way, direct, because it treats each subject without complications; dignified, because it never descends to silly diction under the delusion that such expressions amuse and attract the young; inspiring, because it directs the thought to lofty themes and creates a desire for the best in art."