"Many music lovers feel that they cannot appreciate modern music, and even those who like to listen to it often find it difficult to evaluate. Why does it almost always, at first hearing, sound so disturbing? Why does it appear to be lacking in melody (unlike the masterpieces of the 19th century)? Is it always complex and formidable? What aims and ideas have the composers in mind? Aaron Copland attempts to answer these questions. He shows first of all how contemporary music grew naturally out of the work of such masters as Moussorgsky and Debussy, through Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Hindemith, to the work of younger Americans like Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, and Marc Blitzstein. The book offers a brilliant panorama of fifty years of new music. It also provides an introduction to the formative ideas of the period, and a survey of recent and current trends. Then the author discusses individually certain leading composers of Europe and America. A special section is devoted to six outstanding Americans, together with a discussion of Carlos Chavez and a review of certain aspects of Mr. Copland's own career as a composer. The book closes with a consideration of developments in new musical media--the radio, the phonograph, the movies. Such a book gives the reader not only a better understanding of new music but a basis for selecting what is good, and increased pleasure in listening. Mr. Copland's manner of writing is clear and simple in the extreme. Like his previous book, 'What to Listen for in Music,' 'Our New Music' is certain to be accepted as the best book in its field."--Dust jacket.