History of Rock and Roll in the United States - by Robert Willey and James Thompson (2020)

Rather than an encyclopedic approach to the history, History of Rock and Roll in the United States includes the essentials to the history of rock and roll. The authors review the core repertoire in subsequent chapters from the additional angles of instruments, performers, spaces, form, and technology.  It develops a framework that readers can use to understand other music they may come across in the future.

History of Rock and Roll in the United States:

• includes links to songs – listen to them before, while, and after reading about them. Students are encouraged to let music sink in. Take time to enjoy it, but also become an active listener.

• integrates questions at the beginning and end of each chapter to help alert the reader’s unconscious mind to what to watch for and to assess comprehension of concepts taught.

• helps students to increase their awareness and understanding of American popular music and to make listening to music more interesting and enjoyable.

• includes a companion website with YouTube and Spotify playlists and other enrichment material.

Introduction to Music - by Robert Willey, James Thompson, Rebecca Burkart, and Stephen Price (2021)

We wrote this book because the other textbooks that we looked at were long and had hundreds of names. We supposed that students react to these with the TLDR reflex ("too long, don't read!"), and that even if they make the effort, they don't remember most of the content, and therefore missed an opportunity to achieve the outcomes listed on the syllabus.

We decided to be brief in order to foster a new attitude towards studying (NTLR, or "not too long, read!") and focus on a few key figures like Machaut, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Stravinsky, Joplin, Ellington, Little Richard, Elvis, and The Beatles in order to develop a solid framework that students can use to relate other music to. Each chapter has a couple of sidebars with related artists like Josquin, Handel, Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Haydn, Clara Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Public Enemy,

The world music chapter highlights music from Louisiana, Mali, Benin, Brazil, North India, Indonesia, and Korea.

One of the unique features of the book is that after we introduce the main historical periods we return with bonus chapters on form, performers, spaces, and technology in order to consolidate the learning by reviewing some of compositions from other points of view.

Dr. Thompson’s strong interest in history led him to complete a secondary study in music history at Ball State University. He has since taught courses such as Music Appreciation, Music History I & II, History of Rock & Roll, American Popular Music, and Music Theory I & III.

Dr. Thompson’s areas of research interest are the music of Nicolas Bacri, contemporary flute music, woodwind chamber music, flute pedagogy, Minimalism, Impressionism, the music of Joni Mitchell, and comparative aesthetics of art and music. James also enjoys writing program notes and presenting pre-concert talks for symphony orchestras.

Dissertation Abstract, L’Instrument du Rêve: An Analysis and Performance Guide to Selected Works for Flute by Nicolas Bacri (December 2018)

• This dissertation was a 2019 winner of the National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Competition