Within the Landscape Book

"But when we speak of music we are really talking about a multiplicity of activities and experiences; it is only the fact that we call them all 'music' that makes it seeem obvious they belong together."
-- Nicholas Cook, Music: VSI



Vol N° 2 of Oxford's Very Short Introductins series.

'Music: A Very Short Introduction' is one of the very first books in Oxford's series. It is both MORE and LESS (not to be confused with more or less) than what I was expecting. It was more of an academic, post-modern, post-colonial, Marxist look at music. Since the Western Canon is the elephant in the room for any discussion of Music, it gets most of the attention, but Cook also spends a lot of time wandering around the idea of Music as cultural system, language, and representation of culture and society. He also explores critical theory, musicology, music theory, and the potential for music as a means of cross-cultural understanding and insight. There was a part of me (the part that will occassionally flirt with Wittgenstein AND John Cage) that enjoyed the academic and cerebral approach to understanding Music.

There was also a part of me that wanted to tightly wrap a brass trumpet around Cook's neck. I don't think these books need to be easy, but part of the issue with academics in many fields is their tendency to write for their own little group (the less of my more AND less). I'm not sure this book would be of interest for many beyond a MUSIC501 (Introducton to Musicology) course at Duke, etc. I guess for me this type of a book, as an amatuer music listener, would be more Schönberg and less Mozart. It is aimed at the few and not the many.