A primer—rather than a survey—this text offers exceptionally clear, simple explanations of basic theoretical concepts for the post-tonal music of the twentieth century. Emphasizing hands-on contact with the music—through playing, singing, listening, and analyzing—it provides six chapters on theory, each illustrated with musical examples and fully worked-out analyses, all drawn largely from the “classical” pre-war repertoire by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Berg, and Webern.