Roger Scruton is a polymath. He has written authoritatively on a huge
range of subjects from the environment to wine, from cosmology to the
Middle East. He is also an accomplished musician (organ and piano) and a
composer of works including an opera and a song cycle. This is Scruton's
second major work on music for Bloomsbury - the first being
Understanding Music (Continuum, 2009).
In this new book he turns again to the meaning of tonality and sound.
His abstract, somewhat mystical argument on these topics includes
slashing attacks on Marxist reductionism, on the authenticity of Early
Music, on rival aestheticians such as Adorno and on sentimentality and
cliché in any form. As with Understanding Music, he also expounds his
views on pop music in a most satisfying and provocative new work.
Cover copyright: (c) Succession Picasso/DACS, London 2018