For undergraduate/graduate-level courses in Twentieth-Century Techniques, and Post-Tonal Theory and Analysis taken by music majors. A primerãrather than a surveyãthis text offers exceptionally clear, simple explanations of basic theoretical concepts for the post-tonal music of the twentieth century. Emphasizing hands-on contact with the musicãthrough playing, singing, listening, and analyzingãit provides six chapters on theory, each illustrated with musical examples and fully worked-out analyses, all drawn largely from the –classical” pre-war repertoire by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, and Webern. 'Straus takes a paced, methodical, logical approach to each topic. He introduces it in context and _ perhaps most significantly of all _ uses language that's so transparent that merely to follow his descriptions, explanations and illustrations carefully is to understand each aspect of the theory under consideration.' Mark Sealey, Classical.net