This volume is the preeminent source of contemporary information on performance practice for the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Praetorius is the most often quoted and excerpted writer on performance practice.
A resource on classical music provides coverage of composers, works, musical terminology, and performers, along with recommended recordings and access to an interactive Web site that allows readers to listen to sample works, techniques, and performers discussed in the reference.
This is an encyclopedia geared to the listener, not the scholar, and covering those terms, works, composers, and performers that NPR listeners and concert goers are most likely to hear.
The critical importance of past for the present--of music histories in local and global forms--asserts itself. The history of world music, as each chapter makes clear, is one of critical moments and paradigm shifts.