Book Review

Temperament: The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle
by Stuart Isacoff

This short book was surprisingly fun, given its esoteric and nerdy subject matter. Isacoff examines the tuning of the Western diatonic scale, the problem of obtaining pure, harmonious intervals across the scale and across keys, and the development of equal temperament. This examination puts these things into context, relating developments in tuning to concurrent developments not only in music, but in science, art, philosophy, and religion. Although this book didn't have much in the way of things I didn't already know, it did an amazing job of delving into relationships between music and other disciplines, which proved fascinating. Isacoff also did a great job of taking a potentially dry subject and making it incredibly interesting and even exciting.
(I should note that the text is not very technical at all - the reader does not need to read music or have any background in music theory.)