Between old worlds and new

Wilfrid Mellers ranks among the most eminent of contemporary British writers and lecturers on music. The range of his interest is exceptionally wide, encompassing music from the renaissance to the present day, from Monteverdi to Minimalism, not excluding jazz and many different forms of popular music, as well as music from non-western cultures.

That breadth of vision is nowhere more apparent than in his occasional writings. In these necessarily concentrated and closely focused pieces we find the essence of his thinking about music, its nature and its meaning. Written in the first instance for the general reader, they also offer insights that should be of importance to music students in schools, colleges, and universities.

Wilfrid Mellers has won international acclaim, over many years, with books such as Man and His Music, Music in a New Found Land, Bach and the Dance of God, Caliban Reborn, and Vaughan Williams and the Vision of Albion. Not surprisingly, since he is also a notably original composer, he is interested primarily in what music is for, and how composers' intentions are realised and made manifest.