I like the introduction: "This ... (book) might cause arguments. ... we could be pilloried both for what we choose to include and because of what we chose to leave out." With that introduction, I was free to enjoy whatever eccentric choices the authors made, and I am enjoying their succinct approach.

Before checking this book out of the library, I looked at chapter 36, and found it interesting enough that I pretty much read to the end of the book before leaving the library.

Each chapter is so short that it doesn't get into depth on anything. Sometimes I was left longing for more detail. Generally I found it interesting and could hardly wait to find out what the next chapter had to offer.

Table of CONTENTS
Introduction
1 Banging and Blowing: The First Musical instruments
2 Sing a Song of Christmas: The Development of the Carol
3 Getting it Written Down: The Introduction of Musical Notation
4 Changing the Tune: The First Use of Polyphony
5 The Cruelest Cut: Castrati Come to Prominence
6 Strike Up the Band: The invention of the Symphony
7 Making it in a Man‘s World: Hildegard of Bingen
8 Sharing the Music: The invention of the Printing Press
9 By Royal Appointment: The Master of the King‘s Musick
10 Music and Movement: The First Ballet
11 Baroque 'n' Roll: A New Musical Era
12 A Capital Hit : Handel in London
13 Religious Change: Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
14 Words and Music: The First Opera
15 The World's Greatest Opera House: Scala, Milan
16 Classic Discovery: Another Era of Change
17 The Instrument-Maker Extraordinaire: Antonio Stradivari
18 Taking the Orchestra to Another Level: Hector Berlioz
19 The World's First Classical Music Superstar: Franz Liszt
20 Romanticism Arrives: Beethoven‘s ‘Eroica'
21 Putting on a Show: The Founding of the Royal Philharmonic Society
22 Beating Time: The Baton and the Conductor
23 Rewriting the Rules: The ‘Tristan Chord‘
24 A New World Order: Impressionism and Classical Music
25 A Matter of Record: The Invention of the Gramophone
26 Musical Numbers: The Advent of Serialism
27 We Predict a Riot: Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring
28 The Lure of the Silver Screen: The First Film Soundtrack
29 A New Polish: ‘Furniture Music'
30 Making Money and All That Jazz: George Gershwin
31 Back to the Future: The Rediscovery of Vivaldi‘s Violin Concertos
32 Silence is Golden: John Cage‘s 4‘30"
33 The TV Age: Leonard Bernstein‘s Young People‘s Concerts
34 After This Break: Classical Music and Advertising
35 Russian Revolution: The Death of Joseph Stalin
36 The Pianist Who Conquered Russia: Van Cliburn
37 Cartoon Classics: Walt Disney‘s Fantasia
38 Less Is More: The introduction of Minimalism
39 Hitting the Right Note: The international Chopin Piano Competition
40 The Medium ls the Message: The Invention of the Compact Disc
41 New Ways of Doing Business: The Budget Classical Label
42 On Top of the World: The Three Tenors in Rome
43 Music for the Masses: Classic FM is Born
44 Classical ‐ But Not as You Know It: Crossover Music
45 Digital Dexterity: Composing on Computer
46 Music as Peace: The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
47 The Next Generation: The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra and El Sistema
48 Technology Changes Everything Again: The Digital Download Revolution
49 World Wide Web: Eric Whitacre‘s Virtual Choir
50 Could Video Kill the Classical Star? Videogame Soundtracks ( )