A refreshing renovation in informative musical books, this complication of articles, excerpts, etc., by critics, composers, historians. Standard material is enlivened by lack of rigidity in presentation, in attitudes of approach to personalities, and subjects. For all its novelty, there is no lack of necessary inclusions, all types of music and it variety of forms, -- folk music here and abroad, aymphony, opera, radio-program notes on individual compositions, biography and commentary on individual composers, and authored by the editor, Downes, Taylor, Shostakovich, Goodman, Gershwin, Banborn, Kiretein, Stravinsky, Ewen, and many others.