Sprawling and lively, confounding and engaging, and in a word, brilliant...it surely stands as a testament to [Goehr's] lifetime of teaching, writing, reading, viewing, listening, and conversing. It is a book, that teems with curiosity and erudition. More than once, it made me laugh out loud. It rewards sustained reading, and I am glad I read it cover to cover. But it would also reward the occasional perusal of any given passage, if only to give the reader the chance
to marvel at the threads, red and otherwise, that it weaves together.
Lydia Goehr is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is the author of The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music; The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy, and of Elective Affinities: Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Theory.