Austria Books

I borrowed this book from a university library and wound up ordering it online. It is true that the majority of the recipes provide instructions for making 8 cakes at a time. However, 10 recipes have a small-yield option. Even when this option is not included, for the most part, it is not difficult to divide amount of every ingredient by 8: After all, there are 16 ounces in a pound, which is 8 times 2. If there are 64 or 56 eggs or 24 egg whites in instructions for 8 cakes, it is also rather easy to divide these numbers by 8. Calculus never exactly liked me, but I did all divisions and wrote notes in the recipe sections of my copy of the book. As long as a cook is not arithmetically challenged, she or he can use this book.

This is not a book for a coffee-table; this is an excellent source for serious bakers. Also, as any cookbook on Viennese baking, it provides recipes for many flour-free goodies. The author also lists in the beginning desserts without flour, desserts without butter, and desserts without flour and butter recipes for which are in the book.

With regard to the originality of recipes and quality of recipes and instructions, it is one of the best books on baking on the market. If you like Rick Rodger's "Kaffeehaus," you are going to love this book as well, except that "Kaffeehaus" is beautifully published and makes a very good gift. Berl's book contains a few colored photographs of finished products and a few black and white photographs of buildings in Vienna, but not a lot. Instructions and very helpful drawings on making a strudel are definitely better in Christine Berl's book. Recipes for several yeast dough strudels which are present here are not provided in "Kaffeehaus," for example the poppy seed strudel, which is made with yeast dough. I made it exactly according to Berl's instructions, and result exceeded expectations. Tyrolean strudel, also made with yeast dough, is spectacular. Several grande occasion cakes are quite original, taste delicious, and their presentation is really special. The Habsburg Torte consists of four layers made from two different sponge batters (one - made with hazelnuts and bread crumbs, the other - with almonds and bread crumbs)and two cream fillings, one chocolate and one pistachio. Is this rich cake worth the sin! I have never seen before the recipes for Taylor's Torte (almonds-based batter, chocolate cream filling with hazelnuts and walnuts), House of Cards Torte (a great combination of chocolate, nuts and candied peels and spices, creates an unbelievable aftertaste), Carmelite Torte (uses dried dates and figs and fresh champagne grapes), King's Torte (uses pine nuts), Moss Torte (does it look spectacular! tastes great, too). The author also provides a very good recipe for Orange Torte (virtually unknown in the US) which is quite easy on the eye, three different recipes for Linzer torte, two recipes for Sacher (one - with rum).

Also, I never before saw recipes for milk batter and wine batter which are used for deep-frying. I have encountered the beer batter recipe before, but I believe that Berl's is better. However, a number of recipes present in "Kaffeehaus" are not available here, for example, colaches, so those two books complement each other nicely.

I recommend this book to any passionate and loving experimentation home baker. Professionals who live and work in culturally-diverse or cosmopolitan areas, with their spoiled by broad choices clientele, might use this book to their competitive advantage. After all, the author's mother was a successful caterer in NYC.

I highly recommend this book.

Well, after scaling down the recipes, I was able to make some really good desserts. Don't know if this is for the "novice" home cook, though. Paired a linzertorte with a great glass of Austrian dessert wine (Wenzel Saz, found it at www.winemonger.com) at a party to big cheers.

This book has a compelling premise: capturing family recipes for the best of Viennese pastry. The big disappointment, however, is that the recipes are all scaled for foodservice portions, without reference for reducing them to domestic applications. While I'd love to try an authentic linzertorte, I don't have need most days to make 8 cakes worth. I wouldn't recommend the book unless you run a restaurant, pastry shop or other large volume business, or you're interested enough in the topic to justify reading it as an academic learning experience, without practical application. I sent it back - I wish I had known the target reader group was not the home baker.

Caveat Emptor! This looks slick but it just doesn't deliver. It is definitely not for the home chef. One can't help but wonder if the author actually made any of these outside of the resaurant.

Viennese pastry are world reknown, and I was looking forward to a specialized work in the ranks of, say, Gourmet Magazine. You're much better off with Eurodelices, by Bellahsen and Rouche.

A great primer on the true art of Viennese pastry. The formulas are easy to scale, although scaled versions would have been helpful. I have tried many of them with great sucess!

I am planning to trek in Alps with my wife and a 3-years old kid. I thought of a hut-to-hut concept, and this is exactly what appears in the book's title, that's how I bought it.

Though while reading the book I found very little information that would suit for my needs. There is no difficulty rating. There is no way to get a brief idea about the difficulty level of a trail unless you read through the entire chapter. Didn't find any "easy" treks that would be suitable for kids.

"Walking Austria's Alps, Hut to Hut"
Jonathan Hurdle
ISBN 0-89886-640-5

This book deals with a mountain world that exists above the picturesque towns, the beautiful lakes, and the majestic valleys of Austria. For the most part, it must be reached by foot. To those who are in reasonably good shape and can rough it a little, though, this book provides the insight to partake of that Alpine world in all its glory.

Having visited Austria on several occasions and ridden by cable car near the tops of mountains such as the Kitzbuehler Horn and Grossglockner, I have glimpsed from up there the pale blue-white mountain peaks that lead off almost endlessly to the distant horizon. But to have the opportunity to walk for days in those mountains, spending the nights in mountain lodges built just for hikers, that would be a fine experience.

These mountain huts are probably unfamiliar even to those who are fairly familiar with Austria. These huts, Mr. Hurdle explains, are not shacks, but they are professionally run, clean, and comfortable mountain lodges, where hikers sleep on long mattresses in communal areas for as many as twenty persons at a time without regard to sex or age. Sometimes food is available, as well as wine and beer. Hut guests have also been known to sing. Altogether, there are about 900 such places in the mountains of Germany and Austria.

The book describes eleven different tours of from four to eleven days. The hikes are mostly in the southern part of Austria where it borders with Italy. The hikes include tours in the Oeztaler Alpen, where the famous ice-age man, that Austrians call "Oetzi" was found, as well as a hike on Grossglocker, the highest mountain in Austria. There is a map for each tour, and a description including the appropriate hut in which to sleep for each stage.

This is an interesting book, but perhaps it loses a little by focusing almost entirely on the details of the hikes. The general reader might hope for a slightly broader context that included a little more detail about the towns or areas near the starting or ending points of some of the tours. It is somewhat difficult, even for one familiar with Austria, to get ones bearings in terms of the familiar towns and highways of the country. One other shortcoming in this book is that the pictures are all in black and white. Color would have enormously increased the degree to which the beauty of the mountains is conveyed.

On the whole, the book sparked my interest, and I hope, before long, to walk in the beauty of some of those high remote places.

Having used the book as a guide on some of the walks described in the book, I found it to be a top notch guide book as well as containing a number of useful suggestions. Anyone who is interested in going hiking in spectacular scenery should strongly consider Austria and Mr. Hurdle's book. Using the guide along with the detailed maps available everywhere in Austria is the perfect way to find your way around the mountains.

I bought this book because I had a business trip with a few extra days in austria. I am writing this right before boarding the plane home. This book fired-up my imagination and just for that it's worth buying, but it also gives you enough information to actually do the hikes. I did the end of trip 9 in reverse and climbed up a nearby mountain. I couldn't have planned this trip if it weren't for this book. That being said, you really need to order the maps the book recommends, there is a lot of extra information (including a "P for parking where you can park your car for one or a few days..). This book was not written with cars in mind.. Nevertheless, everything was as this book describes, except that they now serve muesli at the huts and his hiking times are a little tight.. I couldn't quite do it. As he mentions, you really need to either know german (I knew none) or bring a phrase book(which you will need to order food). The staff speaks enough english to get you a room and some basics (e.g. beer and cafe.. because they sound the same in german) and a huttenshlapsack ( a sleeping sack). Use the book, order the maps they recommend and go. This book does exactly what the title suggests, you can't ask for more. In 1999, web sites were not so ubiquitou so if you are good with google, you can find websites for most of the huts and if you look closely most have a magic "english" button. You then have access to a wealth of information on the hikes and service. You cannot make online reservations, but they give you a cell number where you can get a german speaking acquaintance to make the reservations for you (or your friendly travel agent). The huts have full kitchen, hot water, flush toilets and knick knacks. You need to bring your own trail food though.. they only have items for immediate consumption (and water). A little hut-specific vocabulary would have been nice (e.g. how to fill the log book). Last word of advice: the trails are really well marked, much better than in colorado.. and don't follow the "double arrows" they don't point to anything, they are just a marker.. but that's another story.

Amazon should not sell this book. I strongly recommend that readers should not use this book as a guide, for the reasons described below.

I purchased this book several years ago and since have been planning a trip to Austria to do several of the hikes. I just returned from said trip.

I completed the Karwendal tour this past week. This tour is described as a beginner hike, for those with only a modest bit of hiking or walking experience. I had this hike planned as a warm up. After which I intended to do another of the hikes, in the Zillertal region.

I found the trail descriptions in the book to be grossly inaccurate, and to highly understate the actual conditions I found underfoot. There were numerous sections of steep scree fields, exposed cliff and ridge walks, and precipitous cabled ascents and descents, some sections of scrambling, and steep slopes covered in loose gravel. Needless to say, these conditions were certainly not for beginners. Throughout the book, the author makes reference to "nur fur die Gestube" signage to be found on the trail. This term means "only for the experienced". Sections of trail will be signed "nur fur die gestube", when the DAV or OEAV intended it to be attempted only by experienced "climbers", not walkers. These sections of trail will be marked as "steig" (climb) as indicated by black dotted lines on a AV map, or "klettersteig" (ladder climb) as marked by red dotted lines on an Alpenverin (AV) map. These sections are not hiking trails in any but the most extreme sense. In particular, steig or certainly Klettersteig should only be attempted by fit individuals with some climbing training, a harness and a helmet. An ice ax to arrest a slide could also be usefull if there is any ice, or the potential for ice. The author downplays the danger and exposure associated with these sections of trail, which is, in my opinion, reckless and cavalier.

The descriptions to be found in the book do not describe the conditions to be found, either for the "nur fur die gestube" sections or the sections without such signage. In addition, many sections or trail with significant exposure are unmarked, and are not described as containing cables, steep slopes or risk of injury in the text of the guide. These sections will come as a nasty surprise to those expecting the conditions described in the text and pictures. In one case I found myself literally climbing up a 75-80% incline, hand over foot, to the top of what turned out to be a knife edge ridge, with a sheer drop on the other side. In another situation, the trail called for descending down a 75-80% incline of solid rock, backwards, relying on a steel cable. In several cases, I followed a narrow trail along high, steep cliff sides, aided by steel cables laid into the rock. In the latter case, I was lucky to cross these exposed sections before a electrical storm came up.

In addition, the hiking times stated in the text are often not realistic, particularly the descent times.

I purchased the exact Alpenvereinkarte and have a good deal of hiking nad some climbing/scrambling experience in the states, having completed the Mount Whitney day hike and several other long distance back country hikes.

This fact should sum up my experience. I encountered four other hikers on the trail, all of which came to the Karwendal based on this guidebook, and its promise of beginner conditions. I was the only one to finish the tour, the other four turned back early due to the hazardous conditions. All of us were highly dissappointed with this guide. In fact, the locals who were amongst us on this trek got a good laugh out of the description of this hike as a beginner's hike. It certainly should not be attempted by anyone who is not fit, or without significant experience high in the mountains, or with any fear of heights.

We have a shelf of Frommer guides, US cities, Canada, Mexico, Europe & Asia. This was the first bomb. I found it totally useless and not up to the quality I expect from Frommer. Since it was the only guide to Vienna we had with us I feel my vacation was negatively impacted by it. After this experience I will not automatically purchase the Frommer.

Just got back from a weekend drive to Vienna. There is a ton of usefull info in this book. I wish there was a fold out map covering all of Vienna though. (Our hotel gave us one for free). I can't speak for the Hotel recomendations but the restaurant picks were solid. For like 16 Euro you can get a 72hr public transit pass. This pass also gets you museum discounts and freebies at seletcted restaurants.

Chose this guidebook over others as much to check out the Frommer's style as to get travel info. Normally I am a Lonely Planet guy, but since I was staying with friends didn't need a lot of in depth descriptions of logistics (lodging, travel etc.). Just looking for a description of some of the attractions.

I found the guide difficult to use. Although I didn't need much in the way of logistical support, there was really very little. There were only about 4 maps in the whole book and they were spaced out all over the place. Virtually no information on specifics for those arriving overland. Worse, the descriptions of the attractions any sense of enthusiasm. Normally when I read a guidebook, I get the sense that sites are over-hyped, but this book almost made me want to skip the city altogether.

I have found Frommers on-line a good source of info and reviews but won't be buying another of their guidebooks in the future.

This book was so great for our Vienna trip! We were the most well-prepared travellers for this city, which cut out plenty of stress, and allowed us to really enjoy our Vienna experience!

AAA tour books are small and easy to carry.They don't go into great depth on any subject,but if it's a short trip,they give you the highlights.I especially like the "Top Ten" listings in each book,and the star ratings for each attraction,which allow you to set priorities for things to see.

A guide about the catalan capital that has a picture of a woman dressed in an andalusian (southern Spain) typical dress on its cover is like a guide of Edinburgh with a pint of Guiness on its cover. Only suitable for anglosaxon tourists with a very low cultural profile.

The book has a good summary for the major highlights, and very nice pictures. Good overall coverage, but the best part is that the book is small enough to fit in a bag or a pocket to travel with you when finding the features of Madrid.

Good, but not detailed enough, map of central Madrid. One would still need a more detailed map for a lot of walking around the city.

I loved the premise of this book: food and "ambiance" from the countries and locations along the Rhine, a river that stretches through several countries. But it doesn't deliver.

The recipes are simple... a little *too* simple. When I was in the mood to make, say, a German saurbraten, I compared Nelson's recipe to several others. Her recipe wasn't bad, but it was wholly unremarkable. Every time I started to cook from this book, I ended up choosing a recipe from another cookbook.

Nor does the "travel" information provide any insights. It's as if she scribbled a few notes from a guidebook, rather than give the reader a view into another place, another life.

On the other hand, this book is suitable for people who are curious about European cooking but somewhat intimidated by "authentic" recipes. I ended up giving away the book to friends who are interested in German cooking, but not very adventurous.

I loved the premise of this book: food and "ambiance" from the countries and locations along the Rhine, a river that stretches through several countries. But it doesn't deliver.

The recipes are simple... a little *too* simple. When I was in the mood to make, say, a German saurbraten, I compared Nelson's recipe to several others. Her recipe wasn't bad, but it was wholly unremarkable. Every time I started to cook from this book, I ended up choosing a recipe from another cookbook.

Nor does the "travel" information provide any insights. It's as if she scribbled a few notes from a guidebook, rather than give the reader a view into another place, another life.

On the other hand, this book is suitable for people who are curious about European cooking but somewhat intimidated by "authentic" recipes. I ended up giving away the book to friends who are interested in German cooking, but not very adventurous.

All Along the Rhine presents recipes, wines and lore from Germany, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Holland, blending authentic Rhine recipes with cultural and political history and insights. No color photos, but the easy dishes don't need them and All Along the Rhine is as strong in its cultural information as in its culinary history of the entire region.

This book is Jewish Paranoia gone hay-wire. After reading it you may think Austria is the scariest place on earth. It's not so much that the reporting is shotty and one-sided, it's the general sense of conspiracy that is ludicrous. ML

That is one of the central questions to the frustrations in this book. That the mundane and the truely horrifying alike has been ignored far too long, just as Austria has white washed the American public into believing that it is the idelic alphine state from the first half of the Sound of Music.

The reader should be prepared for four things when reading this book:

1. It is not easy reading. I am a fairly fast reader even through some of the most difficult material, and this still took me months to get through. Rosenbaum is an excellent lawyer and researcher, he does not make engaging reading. You must really want to read this book to get through it.

2. Be prepared to be horrified. Perhaps the last pages where it discusses that this man's voice, as leader of the human race, will be traveling in space for possibly a billion years.

3. Be prepared to loose any remaining faith you have in the United Nations. Simple fact. The secretary general of the United Nations was a wanted war criminal by that self same organization.

4. Be prepared for a stinging indictment of Simon Wiesenthal. The author says that people have told him that he can not take on a legend and win. He is correct, he can't win, but he certainly does a good job of shattering illusions.

Fundamentally this is a book that should be read. Not because it is fun. Not because it is easy, but with the full understanding that it is not. It should be read though, in the names of the men, women, and children of the Balkans who's justice was denied, both by the mechanics of their own Marshal Tito, by the ineptitude of the United Nations, and most likely by the express consent of the Soviet Union.

Finally though, what this book is best for is in contrast to similar reading dealing with post war Germany. It is important to realize how far the Germans have come by their admission of guilt, painful and sometimes incomplete, which the Austrians have denied themselves and their children in their creation of the victim's fiction.

I am surprised that this book did not receive wider review, it deserves more acclaim, and is very revealing. I kept "abreast" of Mr. "Herr Oberleutnant" Waldheim for many, many years. And, contrary to a customer review, this book does not portray "Austria" as "the scariest place on earth"; I was in Austria during the time frame of the author's investigation, and Mr. Rosenbaum "hits the mark" in his description. Austrians vehemently deny their past in its ENORMOUS contribution to the HOLOCAUST and the slaughter of "subhumans", especially in the Balkans. Austrians comprised a majority percentage of many units in the Wehrmacht and SS troops stationed in "Yogoslavian Region"; many whom, at that time, hoped for the restoration of the "Austro-Hungarian Empire" (mostly run by the Austrians then) of pre-WWI. Kurt Waldheim was well known in professional Allied military circles, including my "NATO service days", to have been a participant in the slaughter, that "military bureaucrat staff officer" that helped the likes of Eichmann and Loehr. But during the 70's, his past was so much like the Soviets, as well as the then-present tinpot governments from Romania to Asia, that he "flowed" through easily. ..........Anyway, this book is excellent reading, the truth is ladened in the details that can be so overwhelming to any reader; but, then again, that is how the evils of history escape true review.

I love these Atlas books. They are usually easy to navigate and links to the map continuations are numbered on the edges of each page.

However, I would like to have seen a few of the major cities better detailed. And also, the road numbers were not always clear and weren't repeated often enough along the roads on the map. More than once I asked myself, "Is that a mileage, or is that the road number?" More often than not, it was the mileage.

Oh well, it got the job done and I only got turned around in some of the major cities. That's probably more the fault of the lack of street signs in German cities.

I'd be interested to know if there are any other good atlases for touring this region, but despite it's deficiencies, I was happy to have this in the car with me.

Every major city is on the spiral, which makes it difficult to read the highway names around the city. Also, the detailed views of the major cities didn't show enough of the surrounding area. Many city maps had only 2-3 highways shown, with no other details.

Excellent map book. This is NOT a guide, it is a spiral book with detailed maps of these countries. The scale is:
1:300,000 (1 cm=3km) for Germany and 1:400,000 for the others
At the back there is an index of cities and also half page maps for the most important cities.
The maps are very detailed and one should not get lost with them. They are ideal for driving, but also an excellent resource for studying Germany. I use them for my WWII research, but will surely take the book to my next trip to Germany. For US$ 15, it is a great bargain.

In this collection of essays, J.H. Elliott offers a look at imperial Spain and its empire at its height and in its decline. From the distant realms of the Americas to the court, Elliott guides the reader through economics, art, literature, the Church, and politics. At the center of all this stands the Count-Duke Olivares, minister to Philip IV and would be master of Europe. Elliott wrote a biography of Olivares and clearly remains interested in that political figure. Some of the best parts of this book focus on Olivares and the start of the fall of Spain. While often interesting, Elliott can often be try and casual readers may be put off as he often seems to want to ponder the works of other historians instead of focusing on narrative and analysis. A number of the essays are excellent (such as when focusing on the quality of Spanish art during the later half of the 17th century) but some of them seem a bit too drawn out (namely an essay on Cortez's intellectual foundations).

Elliott is at his best when focusing on the decline of Spain. He shows how culture can flourish even when a nation and a people are in retreat. It is fascinating to say the least and more than a bit uncomfortable as one ponders the situation in the US today. Just as Olivares spent more time on international matters than internal ones, so too does it seem in the United States today. One is forced to reach as he reads these essays a melancholy conclusion; we are Spain, Spain is us.

Although Elliott's book is informative about the historical events, Elliott has shown that he doesn't know anything about the philosophical notion of Spain as a Catholic country. Elliott completely lacks knowlege that the scholastic philosophical movement set the base for the kingdom's social development, he also doesn't talk about the two main pillars of medieval Spanish society, which were to have "fidelity to the King" and to the "Catholic religion", which had a strong influence in the culture of the Spanish civilization, instead describing Spain's adherence to Catholicism as "fanatism" when in reality, religion was a strong part of the identity of the region at the time, and because of that, any other ideological influence might have had serious repercussions in the cultural identity of the kingdom. It is unbelievable that Elliott forgot these two facts and went on to describe Spain's Catholicism as "fanatism", thus not being able to understand the society of that time. I don't recommend this book if you really want to understand the social, cultural and economical development and repercussions of the kingdom of that era.

Being a big fan of Elliott's erudite and entertaining "Imperial Spain" I was looking forward to reading "Spain and Its World". While this latter work was worthwhile, it fell short of my expectations. The book is divided into thematic sections of uneven quality. The first section, on Spanish involvement in the New World (my particular interest) was excellent, offering the reader a variety of interesting essays. The two following sections were a bit weaker, but the last section was quite engaging. Focusing on the "decline" of Spain, a term Elliott finds too facile and blunt to explain the problems and pressures Spain faced in the 17th century, it is very strong on Spain's "Golden Age of Culture", an area obviously close to Elliott's heart. Anyone who has ever admired Velasquez's "Surrender of Breda" (the cover art for Elliott's "Imperial Spain") or "Las Meninas" can appreciate this as well.
Another area close to Elliott's heart became tiredly repetitive - his coverage of the life of the Conde Duque, or Count-Duke Olivares, who rose to power as the first minister of Philip IV in 1621. Elliott has been long fascinated by the Count-Duke and it shows in this collection of essays, as he is by far the most central character. If you are looking for details of the Count-Duke or this particular milieu of Spanish history then dig in, my friend, as you are in for a feast. If not (and I wasnt, despite the fascinating, admirable and hopeless life of this rival of Richlieu) then dont bother trying to plow through this as if it were a survey or narrative. You'll simply get worn out by much of the same information presented over and over again. But perhaps I'm being a little unfair, as it is a collection of essays and not a survey of this period of Spanish history. If you have a particular interest in some of the specific areas, you are likely to be rewarded. But be warned, it is geared for the specialist, and will remain on my bookshelf only as a reference work for specific areas of Spanish history in the 16th and 17th centuries.

I thought this was going to be snippets of radio reports from the era, cuts from news broadcasts and the like but all it was, for the most part, was copies of Army radio shows 1/2 hour at a time. There were some interesting parts, like FDR's speech to congress, but that was about it. The radio shows would have been interesting if we heard just a small bit of them, but it was almost as if they got copies of the shows, slapped them on a CD and called it "War on Radio". Hey wait! Thats exactly what they did. Another annoying thing was that none of this was in chronogical order (or any order that I could surmise).
Don't waste your money on this one. Especially if you are looking for "news type" reports from the front, or trying to get a flavor of the radio reports during the WWII period.

This was a very interesting glimpse into the life of soldiers in WWII, and contains some interesting radio broadcasts from the era.

The quality of the audio is on par with the technology available for the time and the publishers did not run it through any filters, (or if they did some of it was very poor quality to begin with). However, this product does deliver on what it advertises.

Its historical significance is only appreciable, to those who already study the events of WWII; this product is in no way a solid tool to use, other than enhancing existing resources with some interesting audio clips.

If you are looking for some audio clips from the era, and will not mind the (understandable) quality issues of the clips, then this may be a good product for you.

This is a splendid 8 CD set with an essential selection of radio broadcasts from the era of the Second World War:
CD 1 - Churchill speaks after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany; The attack on Pearl Harbor; German radio propaganda.
CD 2 - Eastern Front broadcasts from France and Germany.
CD 3 - Western Front broadcasts including a harrowing eyewitness account of the Bataan Death March.
CD 4 - Report of the Allied Air Force over Japan and Germany.
CD 5 - Complete show of the "Fighting Army Air Force" from the summer of 1945.
CD 6 - Battlefront broadcasts from Guam and a "Fighting AAF" broadcast.
CD 7 - Broadcasts from the battlefront on Iwo Jima.
CD 8 - The surrender broadcast of General Wainwright on Corregidor in 1942 and General MacArthur's 1945 speech on the return to the Philippines.

Narration is mercifully limited on this set and the cost is a great value. There is no clamshell case but the package contains liner notes and reviews the content on the CD's.
A must-have keepsake for enthusiasts of Old Time Radio in America.

The youngsters here making.taking quips at Herr Forte should read/lead with the book,not offering perfunctory commentary based on appriasals and gut wrenches somewhere below the belt. One cannot speak enough about this diamond cutter as Igor Stravinsky had mentioned. When Igor's creativity had run out.

The high points here are the orceshtral music the Cantatas, and the scourings of miniature form. The "bagatelles" for string quartet was quite literally timbres from another sphere,perhaps the sulphur still in the air to be from European bourgeois wars. Forte has plenty of historic data situating each work within a context beyond the tablatures and pitch configurations he is known for. If you are a composer Webern continues to be a viable source for discovery. The first generation, the Darmstadt people, as Nono, Boulez, Stockhausen,Kurtag are all spent,their creativity has run its course. Yet there is/still beauty to be discovered if you know where to look. If all one finds are arrays, and fractal permutations of chordal dyads,hexa.tetra well, please brethren Look Again!, it's all there.

This is certainly an improvement over "The Structure of Atonal Music", but nevertheless a very grudging one. It backs away from some of the absurdities of the earlier book (which received a barrage of just criticism), whereas it ought simply to abandon them.

I complained (to Stephen Dembski, John Schaffer, and others--it may have got back to this author) about the earlier book that it uses "tetrachord" to mean "any set of four notes", whereas "tetrachord" really means a four-note contiguous segment of a scale or tone row. The same complaint applies, of course, to its use of "trichord". This new book at least acknowledges my complaint. It says, "`Trichord', incidentally, is preferred over `triad,' since the latter is associated with a familiar type of configuration in tonal harmony."

This is like saying, "Since `fork' is associated with the thing with which I eat roast beef and mashed potatoes, if ever I am served lasagna I will eat it with my hands." No: We can use language in a civilized manner. A triad in general is a set of three things. A triad in music is a set of three notes. (A set--in both the general and the mathematical senses--by definition is unordered.) The "tri" in "triad" refers to the number of notes ONLY; it does NOT refer to the interval by which a chord is constructed. Thus we can speak of quartal triads as well as of diatonic tertian triads ("a familiar type of configuration in tonal harmony"). Note, for example, that a chord built in fifths is quintal, which is Latin, whereas a five-note scale is a pentatonic scale, which is Greek. We use Latin for the interval of construction (tertian, quintal); we use Greek for the number of notes in the scale (pentatonic), chord (triad, pentad), or contiguous scale, melody, or tone row segment (trichord, pentachord). The metric system makes an analogous distinction: decimeters, centimeters, and millimeters (Latin) are little, whereas decameters, hectometers, and kilometers (Greek) are big. (That the Romans were rather like "Star Trek"'s The Borg, intent on assimilation, has unfortunate small and large consequences: 1) We can't make this distinction between octal chords and octads, and "tri" actually passed from Greek to Latin--essentially it's Greek, though. 2) The Roman Catholic Church.)