The survey course for which this text is designed affords the same broad coverage of musics—classical and popular, secular and religious, vocal and instrumental—as does the traditional music appreciation course predominantly featuring European examples. Here we tackle the happy task of introducing basic musical terms and concepts using selected examples of outstanding American music.

As suggested in the title of the text, I have often related music to other arts, finding such comparisons to have pedagogical as well as aesthetic value for nonmusicians perhaps more familiar with visual and literary than with aural experience. Asher B. Durand’s stunning landscape painting Kindred Spirits (Figure 42), an eloquent portrayal of nature poet William Cullen Bryant and Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole sharing reverent admiration for their country’s natural splendors, in fact inspired this text, which seeks to capture some of that painting’s expression of the interdependence uniting American art and artists.

The musical landscape we explore stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast between Canada and Mexico, and Hawaii—the areas comprising today’s United States. Though influences abound from above and below the northern and southern borders, and though each of the many cultures of North, Central, and South America and Mexico has a rich American musical landscape of its own, time constrains most of our American music courses to cover only some of the music, of only certain regions, within the United States. Regret for what we cannot cover must encourage us to extend our exploration as soon and as far as possible throughout all of the Americas.

New to the Fifth Edition

• Timelines focusing on cultural and historical figures and events, and related musical events and musicians.
• New Critical Thinking Topics at the end of each chapter provide practice in articulating opinions about the music, possibly using vocabulary and information gleaned from the chapter.
• The proportion of vernacular to classical coverage has been expanded and updated in response to requests of users and reviewers, while the text remains of a practical (short) length.
• Several chapters were divided into smaller units, to enhance student comprehension and instructor convenience:
• Ch. 3 (4th ed.), The Colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal Periods, has been divided into two new chapters, one covering the religious music (Ch. 3), and one the secular music of those periods (Ch. 4).
• Ch. 4, Populist Music of the Nineteenth Century, is divided into two new chapters: Ch.. 5, Religious Music in the Early Nineteenth Century, and Ch. 6, Popular Music of the Civil War Era.
• Ch. 8 (4th ed.) has been divided into Ch. 10, Country Music; and Ch. 11, Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival.
• Part 3 (4th ed.), The Growth of Vernacular Traditions, has been divided into Part 3, The Growth of Vernacular Traditions, with 6 chapters: The Rise of Popular Culture
  Country Music
  Ethnic Traditions and the Urban Folk Revival
  The Jazz Age
  Jazz 1930-1960
  Jazz Since 1960
  and
• Part 4: A Diversity of Popular Musics, with 3 chapters:
  Latin Popular Musics
  Rock and Roll
  Popular Music Since 1970
• The text-specific Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/ferrisaml5 provides an abundance of additional resources such as multiple-choice and true/false quizzes, projects, and links to useful websites.

Special Features

• Preludes: Introduces basic technical information concerning texture, form, and notation. Students may browse through the Prelude at the beginning of a term and return to it readily to refresh their understanding as the concepts recur throughout the course. While instructors will differ in the emphasis they place on the Prelude, it’s as essential a part of the text, and the course, as the prelude of a well-written music composition is to that work.
• Part Openers: As in the last edition, relevant social and cultural information appears before each section in Part Openers, available to those who find them valuable, but unobtrusive for those who choose to leave them out. The Part Openers are not intended as material to be absorbed for test purposes, but as enriching and thought-provoking information related to the music covered in that section. They set the context in which music was conceived and first experienced, and broaden students’ perspective of music’s place in the cultural environment.
• Part Summaries: Present terms and names with which students should have become familiar, much as they might be presented in a concert program or a newspaper review.
• Effective Learning Tools: Terms to review, key figures, optional listening examples, suggestions for further listening, and listening examples provide students with extensive support to master the material and enhance their knowledge of American music.

Recordings

Support for Instructors

• Instructor’s Manual
• Test Bank
• Computerized Test Bank

Acknowledgments

As always, I am indebted to colleagues and friends for invaluable suggestions, and I hope this edition will elicit their further comments and, yes, criticism. I particularly want to thank Professor Warren Gaughan of Warren Wilson College for his expert advice on jazz. I remain extremely grateful to Professor J. Richard Haefer of Arizona State University for the use of his Native American slides. My gratitude to Tom Laskey of Sony Music Special Projects is boundless: he provided examples, answered questions, and tolerated confusions (mine) with patience and generosity. Special thanks, too, to Bill Kane, President of the Spirit of Phoenix barbershop chorus, for his efforts in securing permission for us to use the Phoenicians’ splendid recording of George M. Cohan’s “Rose.”

I am most grateful to the following prepublication reviewers, whose recommendations proved invaluable in updating and improving the text: Nancy Kinsey Caldwell, Lake Land College; Theodor Duda, The College of Wooster; Robert Groves, North Dakota State University; Jim Lovensheimer, Vanderbilt University; Myra Lewinter Malamut, Georgian Court University; Mark A. Nelson, Pima Community College.