I ultimately abandoned this book because its premise, while intriguing, is executed with an ambition that far exceeds the author's grasp. The title, The Music of the 20th Century, suggests a broad and inclusive survey of the century’s sonic landscape, but in reality, the book is narrowly fixated on Western classical traditions. A more accurate title would be Classical Music of the 20th Century, as the author's perspective consistently filters musical developments through that singular lens.
This bias is particularly glaring in the chapter on Duke Ellington and jazz. The author appears to imply that Ellington's significance as a composer is validated only by his engagement with long-form orchestral composition, subtly reinforcing the problematic notion that Black musicians must adhere to classical structures to be deemed "serious" artists. Such a perspective not only diminishes the richness and innovation of jazz on its own terms but also reflects a broader, Eurocentric tendency to legitimize non-classical music only when it conforms to classical ideals.
The book starts off promisingly, with early chapters on modernist composers offering a structured and cohesive narrative about the evolution of classical music in the early 20th century. However, as it moves through the latter half of the century, it loses its thematic focus, degenerating into what feels like a disjointed series of Wikipedia articles. Rather than weaving a compelling story about how different genres and movements intersected, the book merely catalogs names and works without deeper exploration. The result is a frustratingly fragmented reading experience that fails to capture the interconnected and dynamic nature of 20th-century music as a whole.
sidenote; STOP TALKING ABOUT WAGNER... maybe I'm uneducated in classical music but why does Wagner appear in almost EVERY page...