Joan Peyser offers a history of twentieth-century music through the lives and works of its greatest composers in To Boulez and Beyond. Peyser provides historical context and suggests
psychological insight for these masters, including Schoenberg, Berg, and Wehern of the Second Viennese School; their immediate ancestors Wagner and Mahler; Rimsky-Korsakov and his pupil
Stravinsky; and Hindemith, Bartok, Cowell, and Varese. Discussing proponents of serialism and twelve-tone technique, as well as those who worked against these styles, the book also considers
Berio, Stockhausen, Shostakovich, Babbin, Copland, Wuorinen, and Cage, among others, describing how and why music moved throughout the twentieth century. The largest section of the book is
devoted to the life and works of Pierre Boulez. A new preface and a bibliography help to round out this revised and updated edition.
