Theoretical aspects of light meson spectroscopy

In this pedagogical review the authors discuss the theoretical understanding of light hadron spectroscopy in terms of QCD and the quark model. They begin with a summary of the known and surmised properties of QCD and confinement. Following this they review the nonrelativistic quark potential model for q{anti q} mesons and discuss the quarkonium spectrum and methods for identifying q{anti q} states. Finally, they review theoretical expectations for non-q{anti q} states (glueballs, hybrids and multiquark systems) and the status of experimental candidates for these states