该书讲述的不仅是爵士乐，更重要的是为广大读者展现了一个绚丽多彩的音乐世界。在这个世界中，作者引领着读者一边欣赏着各个时代的代表作品，一边去领略这种音乐所折射出的丰富的、多元的文化和历史，然后再去思考这种音乐所引发的论题以及蕴含在音乐音响中的深层意义。作者凭借其深厚的音乐修养和实践经验，为读者捕捉到爵士乐大师们精彩的个性表现，指引着读者去享受他们的非凡音乐所带来的愉悦和冲击。译者想再一次强调的是，本书提供的七十多首乐曲的“欣赏指南”非常有价值，它实际上相当于一个代表了不同时期爵士乐风格的经典乐曲的目录。

Course Lecture Titles 1. Music as a Mirror 2. Sources—The Ancient World and the Early Church 3. The Middle Ages 4. Introduction to the Renaissance 5. The Renaissance Mass 6. The Madrigal 7. An Introduction to the Baroque Era 8. Style Features of Baroque-era Music 9. National Styles—Italy and Germany 10. Fugue 11. Baroque Opera, Part 1 12. Baroque Opera, Part 2 13. The Oratorio 14. The Lutheran Church Cantata 15. Passacaglia 16. Ritornello Form and the Baroque Concerto 17. The Enlightenment and an Introduction to the Classical Era 18. The Viennese Classical Style, Homophony, and the Cadence 19. Classical-era Form—Theme and Variations 20. Classical-era Form—Minuet and Trio: Baroque Antecedents 21. Classical-era Form—Minuet and Trio Form 22. Classical-era Form—Rondo Form 23. Classical-era Form—Sonata Form, Part 1 24. Classical-era Form—Sonata Form, Part 2 25. Classical-era Form—Sonata Form, Part 3 26. The Symphony—Music for Every Person 27. The Solo Concerto 28. Classical-era Opera—The Rise of Opera Buffa 29. Classical-era Opera, Part 2—Mozart and the Operatic Ensemble 30. The French Revolution and an Introduction to Beethoven 31. Beethoven's Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67, Part 1 32. Beethoven's Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67, Part 2 33. Introduction to Romanticism 34. Formal Challenges and Solutions in Early Romantic Music 35. The Program Symphony—Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Part 1 36. The Program Symphony—Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, Part 2 37. 19th-Century Italian Opera—Bel Canto Opera 38. 19th-Century Italian Opera—Giuseppe Verdi 39. 19th-Century German Opera—Nationalism and Experimentation 40. 19th-Century German Opera—Richard Wagner 41. The Concert Overture, Part 1 42. The Concert Overture, Part 2 43. Romantic-era Musical Nationalism 44. Russian Nationalism 45. An Introduction to Early 20th-Century Modernism 46. Early 20th-Century Modernism—Claude Debussy 47. Early 20th-Century Modernism—Igor Stravinsky 48. Early 20th-Century Modernism—Arnold Schönberg

此次“新格罗夫”中国引进版共29卷，约2500万字，涉及来自98个国家的29000多项条目(20000多个传记词条，2200个关于乐器及其制造者的词条，1400个关于风格、专业术语和体裁的词条，1300个关于世界音乐的词条，1200个关于通俗音乐的词条，以及其他与音乐有关的许多词条)、5000多幅照片、图表、绘画和地图，涵盖了音乐学上出现的各种新流派，以及细致的交叉参考、数千个音乐示例和精心制作的地图和绘画。 该辞典的主要内容只有27卷，第28卷是附录卷，包括私人收藏、会议报告、历史版本、图书馆、期刊、音响档案馆、图片来源、撰搞人等内容。第29卷是索引卷，是自1890年初版以来的首次尝试，索引按字母顺序排列，大的条目下又设2、3级条目，每一级均按字顺排列，既方便又实用。