A Student’s Guide to Music History might make a good textbook. It’s
inexpensive and handy enough to slip into the pocket of a parka. It’s also
entertainingly opinionated, even when the opinions are goofy. Many of us will
take exception to a certain slant in the Australian writer’s perspective: He
seems to put the NEA under the same heading as Axis cultural agencies.
Paleo-conservative politics aside, Stove is a witty writer and perceptive on
pre-World War II classical music. At less than 140 pages, including a useful
bibliography, Stove’s book paints in broad but vivid strokes about the Western
European art music tradition.
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