“Music’s Monisms celebrates the power of music to transcend the oppositions of verbal language and, indeed, of everyday life. Albright presents brilliantly original readings of major works in twentieth-century music. He takes on some of the most imposing figures in music history with a wonderfully humane, and wonderfully personal, touch.”

Arman Schwartz, King's College London

“This is vintage Albright, a work of original, engaging criticism shot through with interpretive flair and sparkling erudition. This is criticism born of boundless sympathy and enthusiasm, not just of deep understanding.”

Stephen Hinton, Stanford University

“If modernism, as Albright says, is a testing of the limits of aesthetic construction, then monism becomes for him a key to the deconstructive work that works of art can do. In a feast of erudition, playfulness, and referential breadth, Albright offers revelatory readings of music and words, expository as well as creative work, remastering the genealogies from Wagner to Maeterlinck to Beckett and from Schoenberg back to Donizetti.”

Michael P. Steinberg, author of 'The Trouble with Wagner'