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Originally Posted by Netopalis  I began to wonder - what do I not know that I really should? So, I decided on a course of action: reading three books in each of a series of subjects, in order to get a good framework in each one. What I would like are recommendations for good entry-level books in each of these subjects, more ideas for subjects or just some general tips on how I'm going to read this many books before law school.... |
A good overview of Classical music history is
A History of Western Music by Donald Jay Grout and Claude W Palisca.
It's interesting and fairly easy to read, but detailed enough to give you a reasonable understanding of how musical traditions have developed and changed over the years. If you have no musical background at all, there are a few terms you will need to look up, but in general, the book is not too technical. It starts with early,
early music, so if you're more interested in recent stuff (18th-20th Century), you might want to start at or after Chapter 9.
Though you said that you're already reading a lot of history, you will probably enjoy reading about the music discussed in the text and then listening to it, since it'll add to your understanding about why the piece sounds the way it does and what the composer was thinking at the time. In fact, there's a CD anthology produced to go with the book—
Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music.