MUSIC OF THE WORLD

While this covers much the same material as Kaufmann's Little History of Music (Grosset- see P. 451), the use to which the two books will be put is quite different. The Kaufmann book is a good quick reference book, the Pahlen book is extraordinarily good reading for anyone interested in rounding out a background on music that is sketchy. Pahlen is a musicologist of international repute. He shares with his readers a conviction that music is a matter of the heart. He gives a feeling of pattern to its history,- the ascent, the suit, the way into uncertainty. There's a very personal sense of sharing -- the result, perhaps, in his selectivity, his emphasis, his enthusiasms.