Mordden E. A guide to orchestral music: the handbook for non-musicians

New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. — VIII, 579 p. — ISBN: 0-19-504041-4This is a guide through the world of Western orchestral music, designed for the use of non-musicians. It presupposes no experience of any kind, and is meant to be complete in itself. It is basic in its approach but intends to give the reader a thorough if informal «course» in the workings and overall effect — the meaning — of the symphony, concerto, overture, tone poem, and the like.This book has been laid out with that sort of pilgrim's progress in mind. I assume the reader is a concertgoer, a radio or television listener, a record collector, or a combination of these on some regular if infrequent basis. I presume he or she might profit by some informed company for a guide through the maze of historical evolutions, personal digressions, revolutions, counter-revolutions, and revolutions within revolution that comprise Western music.The composers have been arranged in chronological rather than alphabetical order so as to give a sense of historical space. Within each composer's chapter are, first, an introduction and, following, the works you would be most likely to run across. These are listed, very generally, in order of size from largest to smallest: symphonies first (in numerical order), then concertos and smaller concertante works, then large one-movement works and suites, and so on down to overtures and such, The various forms are all filed together — all symphonies first, all concertos together after the symphonies, and so on by genre, regardless of how much they may vary individually in length.