Includes entries on composers, eras, and performers from all fields, definitions of musical terms and forms, and descriptions of musical instruments

Entries for 4,500 composers, 2,000 terms, 1,100 performers, 1,000 titles of musical works, and 150 work-lists for major composers.

Throughout history women have been composing music, but their achievements have usually gone unrecognized.

Introduction -- Musical contrast in Albert Camus' L'étranger -- Musical counterpoint in Albert Camus' L'étranger -- Musical qualities in Samuel Beckett's En a