This new series of Norton books, devoted to informed discussion of contemporary music, draws principally upon articles first published in <em>Perspectives of New Music</em>, which Richard Kostelanetz has described as ""among the most consistently interesting magazines in America."" The <em>Perspectives</em> books will comprise a repository of the clearest thinking and most serious writing about twentieth-century music, forming an essential addition to the libraries of both professionals and amateurs concerned with understanding recent developments.