The Young Person's History of Music, Book 1

The first in a series of two narrative histories of music for upper elementary and middle school students. Book 1 begins with musical legends from antiquity and continues through the story of the musicians and poets of ancient Greece and Rome, music in the services of the early church, the rise of folk music, and medieval troubadours and mastersingers. It also includes examples of early musical notation. Delightfully interspersed throughout this story of music are poems and paintings that relate to the musical subject being discussed. Each painting is followed by an explanation of the art itself and 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 in the second book of this series 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 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."

Used in Living Heritage homeschool curriculum from G3.