This title was first published in 2001. Drawing on a wealth of European philosophical and musical texts, the author examines the origins of the avant-garde and its relation to modernity in tandem with the history of the tonal tradition.

Part 1: The Culture of Classicism. 1. The Classical Understanding of Tonality. 2. Harmony, Order and the Good. 3. Tonality and the Metaphysics of Temporal Order. 4. Narrative, Temporality and the Aesthetic of the Work. Part 2: The Culture of Modernism. 5. Music and the Nature of Modernism. 6. The New Music and the Influence of Technology. 7. Order and the Occult in the Twelve-Tone Method. 8. The Origins of Modernist Aesthetics.