"I really like this text. I think it is the best one I have used up to this point. The three major strengths are its brevity, appropriate level of material, and listening exercises. The text is quite brief and does not go into nearly as much depth and detail as previous editions or other texts I have reviewed and/or used. This is very good for the level of students I teach. The listening exercises provide an opportunity for the students to become actively engaged and involved in the listening and learning process."

Craig M. Wright received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in 1966 and his Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard University in 1972. He began his teaching career at the University of Kentucky and for the past 40 years has been teaching at Yale University, where he is the Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Music as well as Director of Online Education. He teaches his perennially popular introductory course "Listening to Music", also part of the offerings of Open Yale Courses, and his selective seminar "Exploring the Nature of Genius". The author of numerous scholarly books and articles on composers ranging from Leoninus to Bach, Dr. Wright has also received many awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Einstein and Kinkeldey Awards of the American Musicological Society, and the Dent Medal of the International Musicological Society. In 2004 he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago, and in 2010 he was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, joining fellow inductee banjo player Steve Martin. Dr. Wright has also published LISTENING TO MUSIC, CHINESE EDITION (Cengage Learning/Three Union Press, 2012), translated and simplified by Profs. Li Xiujung (China Conservatory, Beijing) and Yu Zhigang (Central Conservatory, Beijing), both of whom worked with Wright at Yale; LISTENING TO MUSIC and LISTENING TO WESTERN MUSIC, Seventh Editions (Cengage Learning, 2015); and MUSIC IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION, MEDIA UPDATE (Cengage Learning, 2010) with coauthor Bryan Simms. He is presently at work on a volume titled MOZART'S BRAIN: EXPLORING THE NATURE OF GENIUS.