Early in his career, Grout's main body of research was in
opera. After 1960 he became more interested in philosophies of music history, due in large part to his publication of a general music history textbook,
A History of Western Music. A ninth edition of the book was published in 2014; after Grout's death, the new editions were revised by
Claude Palisca and
J. Peter Burkholder. Grout also performed as a pianist and organist until the early 1950s. He served as editor of
JAMS from 1948 to 1951, and was president of the
American Musicological Society (1952–1954, 1960–1962) and the
International Musicological Society (1961–1964). ==Bibliography==