Why "very short"? Not that there's nothing much to be said, just a clever title for this Oxford paperbacks series ("Oh, well, if it's very short then it can't be very difficult, can it?") which also provides introductions to, among other topics, Archaeology (by Paul Bahn), Literary Theory (Jonathan Culler), Islam (Malise Ruthven) and Politics (Ken neth Minogue). The present volume is slim, opinionated and unorthodox - perhaps rather too self-consciously unorthodox at times - in its efforts to examine the ways in which we think about music and distil, from those, some sort of overall framework which would allow rock, pop, world music and the blues to co-exist happily with Bach and Beethoven. In mulling over such notions as authenticity, the hierarchy of value between composing and performing and the relationship between the public and musical academe, Cook doesn't shy away from expressing opinions which will outrage the latter, or hesitate to invoke The Spice Girls, TV commercials and the Campaign for Real Ale to help him make his points.
