Schoenberg and His World

Rating:
Summary: terrific book for the musically literate
Review: I used this book for a seminar I led about the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Since I'm a professional musician it all made sense to me, but for readers who don't read music, and don't understand terms in music theory (retrograde inversion, etc) it would be quite intimidating. Yes, the opening chronology is wonderful, and Leon Botstein's essay is fabulous. There is also a fascinating section of comments by American composers, and comments by various people about Schoenberg's paintings. But about half of the book is detailed musical analysis.