Gateway to Music

A fresh, balanced approach that transcends the exclusively classical music focus of most other music appreciation texts.

Gateway to Music: An Introduction to American Vernacular, Western Art, and World Musical Traditions broadens standard notions of music appreciation with an introduction to local and global musical traditions, blended with social, cultural, and historical contexts. It is an ideal text for undergraduate music appreciation courses, a useful supplement for major and non-major courses in music history and world music, and an engaging source for any music lover. No musical background is necessary for this reader-friendly text.

Unit One focuses on music in the United States including sacred and secular traditional music, music for the stage and screen, jazz, and popular music. Unit Two takes the reader through western art music chronologically from antiquity through the medieval, renaissance, baroque, classic, romantic, and modern musical eras. Unit Three explores music in the Americas, Oceania, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, India, and Japan.

Gateway to Music features playlist options which give readers a choice of musical examples. With each genre description, students are invited to find musical examples online with search terms, observe musical and contextual elements, and ask compelling questions. Diverse, noteworthy musicians speak directly to students in full page portraits with primary source quotations. Illustrated musical elements and musical instruments appendices show students the basic vocabulary and tools of music at a glance.
Jocelyn Nelson earned her D.M.A. in early guitar performance with an emphasis in early music at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and from the University of Denver a dual M.A. in guitar performance and music history, and a B.M. Magna Cum Laude in guitar performance. Dr. Nelson has taught music history, music appreciation, and lute and guitar topics at East Carolina University. Her 2010 album of 16th century French guitar and vocal music with vocalist Amy Bartram, Ma Guiterre je te chante, garnered favorable reviews in France and England. Recent work includes research on early guitar notation for the collaborative Corpus des Luthistes project for publication with Brepol. She has recently presented on 16th century guitar music at the International Musicological Society "Tablature in Western Music" study group in Tours, France; and "Conversation Not Lecture: Musical Examples in the Music History Classroom and the Development of Aesthetic Discernment" on the American Musicological Society panel on Inclusivity and Equity in Music History Pedagogy, in Wilmington, North Carolina.