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I also love how he included songs from multiple genres-- both contemporary and classical.

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"In music, nothing is perfect, unique, or exclusive..."

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"In music, nothing is perfect, unique, or exclusive..."

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Ratcliff Ch 20, pg 227

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One of my favorite parts of the book was that Ratcliff always tried to make his book globalized and culturally inclusive as possible. He often used international examples to get his point across. Below is one of my favorite examples that he used, found in Ch 15.

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"Are we-- with all music, to some extent-- waiting around for some pinpointed extraordinariness to happen?... Maybe we are waiting for what we might slangily call perfection."

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"Are we-- with all music, to some extent-- waiting around for some pinpointed extraordinariness to happen?... Maybe we are waiting for what we might slangily call perfection."

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Ratcliff Ch 20, pg 227

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Favorite Aspect: Ratcliffs ideas regarding what makes music significant
Least Favorite Aspect: Ratcliffs writing style and execution of his ideas
How did this change what I think about music: Ratcliffs novel helped me to understand why I appreciate music.
Overall: I loved his ideas, and he did teach me some, but I could have learned much more if he was clearer.

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In my opinion, Ratcliffs thoughts regarding understanding and appreciating music could have been very analytical and interesting, but sadly I feel that his collection of essays was in-cohesive and incomprehensible. Each chapter began with a vague ramble that may or may not have been centered around the theme of the chapter, followed by a laundry list of examples that he did not connect to idea of the chapter. His thoughts and theories regarding musical elements were fascinating, but the book did not explain them well, and I found myself trying to figure out what he was saying using context clues and google. However, the book did help me to understand the reasons why music makes me feel a certain way, and it helped me to realize the importance of these musical elements in societal communication-- in other words, it helped me to understand why music is significant. In essence, it did help me to appreciate music. I just hated the execution of his ideas into writing.