Slottow describes characteristics of the music of American composer Ruggles (1876-1971), placing his minuscule and highly dissonant output in the context of the ultramodern composers of his time. His topics include the importance of the line, the Woodpecker melody, motivic parameters, interval combinations and combination cycles, the term dissonant counterpoint, and relations between three or more voices. Slottow seems to be associated with the University of North Texas; this study may have begun as a doctoral dissertation. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)