Very rarely can a book be as disappointing as this one was. It was not a cultural history of Western music, but seemed to be intent on tracing the theory that underlined classical music in its forebears and then going on through all the worthless "classical" music that is performed perhaps once and liked by exactly no one (like Philip Glass, for example). I was nauseated to see more space devoted to "modern classical" music than to modern musical expressions of the same periods (like jazz, blues, rock, etc.).

I would strongly discourage ANYONE from reading this book for any reason whatsoever, with the possible exception of people obsessed with musical theory. AVOID AVOID AVOID.