England was once described as a land without music by Oscar Adolf Hermann Schmitz. The author blames this state of affairs on the English Civil War and the rise of joyless Puritanism, followed by the restoration of the the Stuarts, and their lack of interest in music; and finally the Industrial Revolution, when men were more concerned with making money. Turner's style is a little dry but still readable and a few more pages on English composers from Sullivan onwards wouldn't have gone amiss, though he ends on a justifiably optimistic note. ( )