Book review: 'Music of the twentieth century: a study of its elements and structure' by Ton de Leeuw.

Ton de Leeuw (1926–96) is held in high regard in the Netherlands for his achievements across a number of fields. First, his reputation as a composition teacher was second to none: his students included many of the leading Dutch composers of the last forty years, including Jan Vriend, Jos Kunst, Joep Straesser, Tristan Keuris, Guus Janssen, and Chiel Meijering. Second, there is his work as scholar of and proselytizer for both twentieth-century music and non-Western musical traditions, which gained a wide audience through his regular broadcasts on Dutch radio. And finally, of course, we have his own refined and elegant music, which frequently shows the influence of his interest in the music of the Indian subcontinent and East Asia, and continues to be regularly aired on concert platforms