Temperament

How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization

REVIEWS

"[Temperament's] most persuasive weapon is the unquenchable passion of its author… An immensely entertaining, original and informative book."
— The Economist

"Isacoff untangles the complexities of this issue with the aplomb of a virtuoso pianist playing scales. He makes an erudite and amiable companion."
— The New York Times Book Review

"Charming... a whirlwind tour of Western culture's big ideas."
— The Los Angeles Times

"[Isacoff] writes engagingly about abstract and often counterintuitive matters."
— The New Republic

"An astounding and accessible journey through the culture-defining narrative hidden in arcane music theory. Isacoff does a wondrous job…"
— The Onion

"If the world finds itself in need of a 21st Century equivalent of Sir Donald Francis Tovey, I nominate Isacoff for the job."
— The American Record Guide

"[Brings] together aspects of science, philosophy, history, poetry, religion and music in a compact yet compelling narrative."
— Library Journal

"Though the book is light sailing, the pleasure here is that it gives readers a glimpse of the oceanic depths of musical metaphors and mysteries still unsolved…"
— The Wilson Quarterly

"A sweeping history of medieval and Renaissance European intellectual achievement, in which the question of tuning assumes a speaking part."
— Time Out New York

"This lucid, humanist study is as much fun to read as a murder mystery."
— The San Jose Mercury News