Combining David Lewin's articles on song and opera with chapters on songs of Brahms, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Milton Babbitt, this collection constitutes a statement concerning the methodological problems associated with interpretation of texted music.

Throughout his career, David Lewin laboured to make even the most abstract theory speak to the experience of the ordinary listener. This book combines many of Lewin's classic articles on song and opera with newly drafted chapters on songs of Brahms, Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Milton Babbitt. Bound together by Lewin's cogent insight, the resulting collection constitutes a major statement concerning the methodological problems associated with interpretation of texted music.

bound to be one of the most important publications in any musicological field this year, and probably this decade.