Clearly a very knowledgeable author and a well researched book but I’m afraid this was not what I was hoping for.
Although there were some really interesting insights into music and the reasons we as humans respond to it and to certain types, it delved far too deeply and far too greedily into historical detail. At times, the text was so densely packed with random historical names which seemed as if they had been crammed in there simply because they were there on the research notes. Of course these names and indeed many of their stories were profoundly surplus to requirement in my opinion. The writing was garbled at times, the structure fell apart as a result of all of the above and rather speculative and abstract conclusions and philosophical ramblings were far too common. More than once, I read a sentence that was, to my mind, complete nonsense.
The middle section in particular gave me no enjoyment whatsoever. A shame because hiding in amongst the dry text book like prose, were some interesting thoughts and facts. But I would not recommend this book. To anyone really.