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CHOICE Review

A decade and a half after the first edition of this book in 1976, Maconie has updated his exhaustive guide to the Stockhausen repertoire. As before, Maconie's method is admirably thorough and comprehensive, not only in his discussion of the works but in his discussion of Stockhausen's aesthetic and philosophical positions on a variety of topics. This volume resembles its predecessor in tone as well as substance; those readers who are not yet True Believers may find it insufferably self-congratulatory. Yet they will learn more about this undeniably important composer from Maconie than from any other source. Libraries who already own the first edition may wonder whether coverage of the past 15 years--a period virtually dominated by the monumental Licht but by little else--justifies a relatively sizeable expenditure. There are, in fact, good reasons for deciding to replace the first edition with the up-date. Apart from the new repertoire, the expanded listing of source materials--not only bibliography and discography, but films and videotapes--is invaluable. -E. Schwartz, Bowdoin College and The Ohio State University