Meet the Great Composers by Maurice Hinson (1997, Package)

This series has a nice organization pattern about it . . . concise information given that spurs students on to look up more details about the composers on their own. I am 'suddenly' (after 35 years as a violin teacher) being asked to teach general music to students who don't want to take a music class. This book and CD have been 'tried and true' elements of several of my colleagues and so I sought them out. I see my students 40 minutes each week and that's it . . . so 'concise and interesting' are two essential properties I look for in a piece of reference material.

The only criticism is that the CD doesn't always follow the order of the pages in the book, but that just means a little more advance planning.