Having said that, however, i'm afraid that these CD's are limited to their intended purpose. Obviously, there would be absolutely no way to have a comprehensive collection of music and text be affordable to an average college student. As it is, the Grout, Norton, and CD's total about $200 total. However, for that cost they provide an extremely good survey of Western music. A student can follow historical developments through the music, and learn an enormous amount from these CD's. They provide a fairly good cross-section of different styles of major composers, and even a few examples of lesser known composers. One is far less likely to criticize the music of the twentieth century, for example, if one finds that Gesualdo (of the late 16th century) was writing music that was MUCH stranger than anything before the turn of the twentieth century.

For someone outside of the music school (who will most likely be required to buy these anyway), these are also an excellent (and comparatively affordable) way to survey the mainstream and less-mainstream trends in Western music. The recordings are all relatively high-quality, often using historical instruments and interpretations (something important to a student of musical history) and providing a good introduction to classical music.

For that reason, then, i recommend these to the casual listener as a good introduction to Western music. If you seek a "greatest hits" album, these are not that; go buy those Time-Life things they advertise on television. This is rather a serious collection of music from as many different styles as allowable while still maintaining some depth. The only thing that keeps the fifth star empty is the lack (by necessity, though i must admit) of a more wide-ranging selection of music. Despite that, they are still an excellent buy. The casual listener of classical music should find these to be a valuable introduction to the well known, and also the more obscure realms of early music.


Good, comprehensive collection - but horrible packaging.   January 23, 2009
Michie (Minneapolis, MN)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I used these CDs for a undergraduate Music History class I recently took. They provide a great addition to the Anthology of Music textbook, allowing the listener to hear examples of the music they are studying. This personally made it much easier to understand the material being taught, and the collection is varied and comprehensive enough to give a wide survey of music from the period.

That being said, these CDs obviously aren't meant to be a stand-alone collection. Instead, they provide examples of the music discussed in the Norton Anthology of Music book and are meant to be used with the book. Granted, many of these tracks are beautiful and excellent examples of the music from the period, but for someone looking for a set to casually listen to, I wouldn't necessarily recommend these.

Despite the quality of the music and the collection, I gave this set the rating it did because the packaging is absolutely horrible. Like a previous reviewer mentioned, they are packaged on a printed surface, so little bits of the printing became stuck to my CDs. Unlike that reviewer, I managed to scrape the pieces off and the discs worked fine, but the CDs were unplayable before, and had I not been extremely careful they could have been scratched. I am sure there are plenty of my fellow students who also had to deal with this immensely annoying problem!