Nicholas Cook is one of the most intelligent and musical of writers and thinkers. This book is a well thought out and engaging summary of music analysis, which in turn is an indispensable part of the scholarly study of music. The reviewers who complain of the difficulty of the book have obviously never read any heavy duty music analysis, because if they had they would instantly see the difference between the obfuscation and pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo which clutters up so much of the field, and Cook's incisive, clear headed, and elegantly written perceptions.