This is an exceedingly important book, one which deserves the closest attention from anybody involved to any extent with 20th century music, either as performer, writer or listener. A review in the Havergal Brian Society Newsletter must needs give a certain amount of special attention to the author's treatment of Brian, but it has to be said at the outset that a special interest in Brian or any of the five other composers discussed ought to be the least important reason for anyone acquiring and reading the book. It presupposes a spirit of enquiry in the render, and hence has the most to offer to the potential explorer of new areas, rather than the consolidator of familiar ones.

In addition, the six essays which form its bulk are framed by introductory and concluding chapters which set out a powerful argument way which 20th century music is or is not brought before the public. Rapoport challenges the assumption that the ‘best' music gains pre-eminence because of its ‘quality’, that ‘best’ means ‘most influential’ and that music which remains in obscurity must be inferior to that which becomes widely known. In the author's own words: ‘Music is studied, performed, published, broadcast, and recorded for reasons that may only incidentally relate to the music.’ Economic, social and human factors all play their part in muddling the equation between celebrity and quality - whatever that may be.

This is not the place to paraphrase Rapoport's six central chapters, but a word is necessary about his approach. The treatment in each case is loosely biographical, particular attention being paid to getting at the facts about the composers' lives; very necessary when, with the exception of Brian, no biographies have been published in English. Rapoport concentrates upon certain matters of particular interest and importance in the life of each - Vermuelen's embattled relationship with the Dutch musical establishment, Pettersson's fight against debilitating illness and poverty, the reasons for, and consequences of, Sorabji's long ban on performances of his own music, and so on.

Also included in each chapter is a concise and intensive examination of a particular work or works Vermuelen: Symphony No 2; Holmboe: Symphony No 7; Brian: the Gothic Symphony; Pettersson: Symphony No 2; Valen: four orchestral pieces opp 17 & 18; Sorabji: Opus Clavicembalisticum). One is tempted to use the word ‘representative’ in relation to this choice of works, but in fact Rapoport does not give explicit reasons for his choices. In some cases the special link with the biographical section is clear (as in the case of Valen where the peculiar difficulties of documentation, exacerbated by the present ban upon the use of much primary source material, are demonstrated), but perhaps he could have given a little more justification for some of his other choices.

When he comes to deal with Brian in Chapter IV Rapoport's approach differs considerably. As he points out, between Brian's death and the centenary year of his birth a great deal of activity took place - much more performance, recording and publishing of the scores, and the issuing of four major books: Malcolm MacDonald's Vol 1 in his study of the symphonies, Reginald Nettel's revision and updating of Ordeal by Music, Lewis Foreman's source book on performances of the composer's orchestral music, and Kenneth Eastaugh's new biography with its mass of new information about Brian's early life. As a result, Rapoport foregoes another potted biography and instead discusses the virtues and short-comings of these four books.

As when dealing with his other composers, he brings a sharp eye for consistency and meticulous avoidance of vagueness, but he confines himself to pointing out internal defects (and merits) - nowhere does he seem to offer the results of new research into Brian's life to confirm or deny contentious points in the books. Thus he quite rightly criticizes Kenneth Eastaugh's lengthy and confused attempt at establishing a new chronology for the composition of ‘The Gothic’ on the grounds of its seemingly inconsistent use of source material and its lack of precise documentation, but he presents no new evidence of Ms own on the subject. The first half of Rapoport's Brian chapter is interesting and useful, but compared with the others it does seem to be at one remove from the ‘front line’ of research and exposition of fresh and vital information which one experiences so vividly in the case of, say, the Pettersson chapter.

Briefly, he discerns that it is built in the plan of a cathedral - a cruciform (‘Whether consciously or not it is impossible to say at the present). Convert the durations of movements I - III in into dimensions and call them the left transept, crossing and right transept; similarly regard the length of movement IV as the choir, movement V the long dimension of the crossing and movement VI the nave, and you have a vividly obvious cathedral ground-plan. Rapoport makes many points about tonalities, relationships between movements, types of music within movements, etc, consequent upon this basic idea. Given his familiar concise and rigorous method, and his refusal to be led off into flights of unsubstantiated fantasy, it is all absolutely fascinating and well worth the price of the book for this section alone.