The Attentive Listener: Three Centuries of Music Criticism

"A delightful collection of 100 items of musical commentary dating across the centuries. . . . Eminently readable and thoroughly informative."--Library Journal

"A beautifully collected and annotated anthology of occasional writings about music--reviews, not lectures; speculations, not theories. . . . Writing criticism of any kind is a peculiar thing to do; writing criticism of music, which is not only a non-verbal art, but one that won't stand still, is nearly impossible. . . . I was astonished and grateful that Haskell had been able to track down so many sparkling reviews, and so many casual references. . . . The readers of The Attentive Listener will find themselves not only touched and amused, but strangely awakened and re-charged by it. I recommend it to anybody who likes music and wants to like it yet again."--Reed Woodhouse, The Boston Book Review