Although competently written, it’s not exactly engaging and there’s an overabundance of quotations, resulting in a somewhat dry text that sometimes feels a bit pasted together. But the information content is excellent, making it a valuable reference work (including the very good glossary of musical terms). It’s basically a series of composer biographies in chronological order, with 10 or 12 pages given to the author’s “major” composers, a couple paragraphs or so given to others, and important works lists for each (more extensive for the “majors”). Some have criticized it for short shrifting early music, which is fair, and for overemphasizing Romantic and modern music.

I actually appreciate the emphasis on the 20th c. I may or may not come to love Webern and might remain convinced that the emperors John Cage and Phillip Glass wore no clothes, but it’s nice to have a good guide to more recent music, which tends to get little attention from general audience music writers and ordinary music lovers. A good companion to this book, regarding modern music, is Alex Ross’ The Rest is Noise. It’s very engagingly written and is remarkably good at describing musical material simply and clearly without watering it down. Its approach is very different from Essential Canon, crafting a story that reads much like a novel. For the relative novice, Ted Libbey’s NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection might be a better place to start than Essential Canon. It’s also a pleasure to read and easier to digest, while not being as detailed or extensive as this book. ( )

As the title suggests this work is essential both for its contents and for the quality of the presentation. David Dubal is one of the premier scholars of music of all kinds and this comprehensive work is a demonstration of his scholarship. This is a reference work that is at once both informative and a delight to read. ( )