« The language ... was Latin, and the normal metre of the Latin verse was a triple metre known as tempus perfectum, consisting of trochees (long-short) and iambs (short-long) ... However, such a concept as 3/2 was not even thought of, the natural metre of the verse making so rigid a constraint unnecessary. What was taken into consideration was a form of musical symbolism by which the religious concept if the Trinity came to be associated with a triple metre ; the time-signature for such a rhythm was shown not as 3/2 but as a perfect circle, itself a symbol of perfection. » (p. 14-15)

When a book starts with such an assertion, I have the tendency to discard it at once, because this is simply absurd, and it is supported by no proof, no evidence. All we know is that music was duple up to J.S. Bach who introduced a heavy triple bourrée that Mozart will make light, thus inventing the antecedent or precursor of the waltz.

Popular dances were triple but they were NOT in Latin. Church music was duple : check for example the Old Hall Manuscript or Willam Byrd. The latter uses the polyphony of his compositions (in Latin) to make it turn around and around, by a permanent shifting from the bass to the alto and down again to the bass via the soprano and the tenor, and back to the alto, or the other way round. To make that music dance around, they used something that had nothing to do with metre.

I do not say that Antony Hopkins's book is not interesting, but I cannot go beyond such an unfounded remark that kind of make fun of the concept of the Trinity which is definitely not that trite. What he says might be true with a popular dance stuck with that particular rhythm. But I would accept it as triple when I am shown the decomposition of the longer note into two shorter notes. This is not possible with Latin where the stressed syllable, in spoken language, is longer than the unstressed syllable. But the whole problem is that all other stressed languages of the Germanic family or even the romance family, oppose, naturally, stressed and unstressed syllables, not in length but only in emphasis. That will produce the famous iambic pentameter, in spite of the French or Norman influence, as for English. French will move towards a syllable-based metre and not a stress-based metre like English, or, before, Anglo-Saxon.

This fundamental binary rhythm will be dominant in music up to Bach, except in popular music, and in English poetry forever. In French poetry they invented a line of four groups of three syllables, hence basically triple, but because French was not a stress-based language. And that was achieved only in the 17th century.

An interesting book, though, in spite of its objective to speak to the non-learned in music. That too is a drawback. People have to - if they want to enter the syntax of music, hence to understand the causes of their pleasure (and no one has to understand why they like a piece of music to like it) - break themselves into the standard language of music criticism. The more they « understand » the nuances, the details, and the proper language for them, the more they can communicate with other people and enhance their own pleasure by sharing it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

As a future music teacher, I recieved this book as a gift from friends of mine, also future teachers. Usborne is a great company, though they don't offer many music books. This book is a good introduction to world music, and the coverage of countries is great! It even includes countries I've never heard of and a map in the front to place the countries. Some songs even include suggestions for accompaniment, mostly of rhythm instruments. The simple songs can be easily played by a beginner piano player, or the melody can be played by almost any instrument. Several songs are in the native language, but there are also plenty of English songs, as well as English translations. The pictures and music and art information is also an added plus! I'm not sure what age range it would fit into. But this book could be easy enough for kindergartners easily through 5th grade, if included with other lesson plans. Also good for a young beginning piano student, or young singer to introduce languages. Also great as an introduction to various ethnic instruments. Overall, a good basic world music buy!!

The quality of the speakers in this collection varied. Some, like those by Fred Friendly and Tom Brokaw, were interesting and thought-provoking but the decline in talent from lecture to lecture was obvious - the last one was by conservative ideologue and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, defending sleeze (sp?) on TV. The editors also did a poor job - all they had to do was transcribe some speeches. The fact that they wound up with spelling and grammatical errors just goes to show how quickly this work was thrown together. My advice - read the offerings by Wicker, Chancellor, Friendly and Brokaw and skip the rest.

Although this book has extremely good photos and charts, its actual content is limited. Coverage of specific events and battles is conscice. This shortcoming is slightly made up for in the book's appendicies which include a nice atlas, portfolio projects, histrical documents, and glossary. However, I recomend this book only for a general review of world history. It is useful as a suplement to other world history texts.

this book waz great. but due to the bizarre climax....it didnt get the 5 stars

You people are harsh! This book is not a classic battle of the Republic Vs. the Empire but it was a great new twist I thought. Besides this book, I have only read the Zahn books in the SW's series and lets face it Zahn is a SW master. But if you are looking for an interesting story where some former Admiral or General from the Empire doesn't mysteriously reappear out of hyper-space check this book out. I thought it was an a thought provoking enemy and the challenges that Luke and Leia face with the Force was also intriguing. My only negative comment on the book is the too perfect ending. When Liegus and Dalla found each other was too much, and unless she plans on continuing with these characters in future novels who cares what happens to them?

Planet of the Twilight is the third book in the so-called Callista Trilogy, and the second Star Wars book by author Barbara Hambly. It is the best of the Trilogy. Hambly's previous work Children of the Jedi was repetative, convoluted and boring. While her writing and plot still tend to be convoluted and Han Solo plays a very minor role (in the great scheme of things), Hambly brings a fresh idea to the Star Wars universe: that of an inter-galactic plague. The whole Droch/Black Seed plague idea was really inspired. In many ways this is the horror story of the Star Wars universe, very different from the previous five books which featured super-weapons like the sun-crusher, Death Star prototype, Eye of Palpatine and Darksaber. Disease is a different type of weapon and the only credible way for Chief of State Leia to be kidnapped with all her bodyguards etc around is to have them die of the plague. The story revolves around Luke and Leia with special emphasis on Leia. It was nice to see her in a credible fighting role, and to see her powers expand. Luke is still looking for Callista, but he seems to have gained back a measure of common sense and competence. Their were two other really great things in this book: 1) the relative absence of Callista, 2) the writing away of Admiral Daala. I never liked Callista, i thought she was a useless character and really had no business being in the Star Wars universe. Everything about her rubbed me the wrong way. As for Admiral Daala it was good to see the most inept Imperial commander ever be written out never to bother the reader again. She just fades away never to return (I hope). Having read pretty much every Star Wars book in existance from the X-Wing books, the 5 Zahn books, the Corellian Trilogy, the Black Fleet Trilogy, the Jedi Academy Trilogy, the Prequal era books, the New Jedi Order and pretty ,uch everything else, the Callsita Trilogy is one of the weakest written. PLanet of the Twilight is the best of that trilogy, but it is not one of the best Star Wars books. The plot ideas are interesting, but simply put, I think Hambly has a poor writing style and she simply does not write a very exceptional Star Wars tale. I do recommend PLanet of the Twilight to any Star Wars fan, but remember there are many, many better books out there.

I just finished Planet of Twilight and it is truly another great book in the series. This book seems to wrap up Luke's relationship with Callista, but fear not, it doesn't wind up with her dieing. This leaves the character for possible future appearances. There are a few surprises in this one particularly the long lost love of Leigus. Barbara is more readable in this book than her last Star Wars book. Barbara has a tendency to start a character speaking, drift around describing scenery or events for a long time, then back to the conversation. It makes the conversation difficult to follow. There is less of that in this book and that's refreshing. I won't give away any plot points, all I will say is this is a must read for any Star Wars fan. If you haven't been reading the rest of the series I would reccomend reading the Thrawn Trilogy and Children of the Jedi first. I thought the planet of Nam Chorios was indeed an interesting one. While the threat to the galaxy may be considered unoriginal, it was done very well and is an intricate part of the story. Hats of to Barbara for this April fix for addicts of the Star Wars universe.

The best of the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, Tyrant's Test takes us back to the convoluted lives of our heroes. The characterizations of Luke and Leia remain poor, Lando's mission is still annoying but there is a bright spot. Chewie's rescue of Han Solo is one of the few bright points in this trilogy. The daring and insane rescue of a battered and tortured Han Solo by his best friend is truly a memorable scene in an otherwise forgettable book. Chewie becomes much more than just a hairy sidekick, but rather he is more of a brother to Han than Luke is. Luke and the strange woman continue to search for her people and his mother. They finally track down this secretive people, but unknown to Luke (but known to everyone else), his traveling companion lied to him and she was really not a part of the secret society. A slave revolt against the evil Yevetha helps to end the threat to the New Republic and Leia sits triumphant atop the backstabbing political world. The end has Luke and Leia reconciling (froma separation that was totally unnecessary) and Luke returns to his real living family. As for Lando, Luke also took time out of his busy schedule to hop halfway across the galaxy to save his old friend trapped aboard a living ship/seedpod. Sounds kind of Vongish to me. Anyway the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy is one of the worst in the Star Wars universe. All three books filled with annoying convoluted plot and terrible depictions of the main characters. It simply the worst trilogy of the Star Wars universe, which is saying something considering how bad the Jedi Academy Trilogy is. Kube-McDowell should have spent more time writing and editing his book to be much more streamlines than the clunky and poorly written result that Star Wars fans received.

(first of all, this review is for the trilogy, and not just _tyrant's test_) in general this was an average trilogy, nothing spectacular, but not bad. there was one excellent point in this trilogy, Chewbacca's part of the story. After reading this, Chewbacca seems more human, not so much a big...wookie...and just Han's sidekick. It was nice to see someone explore the character of Chewbacca. But there were two parts of the story I had problems with. One was Luke's part of the story, I mean, how much power does this guy need?! The other major problem i had with the trilogy is all the time spent with characters we don't know, don't want to know, and aren't that important. I think the author could have spent more time developing the plot lines of the characters we know (such as Han's capture or how Leia dealt with it, which really wasn't touched on a whole lot). But they (other than Lando) didn't seem to have a huge role in the trilogy. All in all, if you keep up with the star wars universe, this trilogy is worth the time.

I found it a bit difficult to get into the story at the begining, as it was a bit boring, but once I got about a quarter of the way through the first book, I couldnt stop reading. I honestly dont know why people are talking trash about these books ... I liked them. This trilogy is definitely worth reading, especially if you're a fan. They may not be as good as the original Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, but what really is?

Anyway, the Black Fleet Crisis, and more specifically this final, climatic chapter of the trilogy, are one of the better Star Wars books I've read so far.

This book doesn't even scratch the surface of the CCIE written, I was very disappointed in this book. It is more or less 700+ pages of a table of contents. I think that it could have been better written and covered the material better than it did, even if it had to be split into two or three volumes to cover the topics in more detail. Sorry, but after going through the CCNP and CCDP using the certification guides for study (and of course on hands experience), this book is by far the worst that I have read through. This book would be good for a review of the CCNP.

Having been working with Cisco and networking over the past several years I found the exams to quite challenging and very tough. Having worked with 2 CCIE's over the past couple years the CCIE exam would have to be the toughest exam of all, this training guide maybe a bright light at the end of the tunnel.

What the author does in this book is create a prep guide of 70 plus pages for the written exam. His understanding of what it takes to pass the exam is what makes this book one of the best I have seen on the market today.

To ensure you best shot at passing the exam each chapter has both a pre and post assessment test. Also the book has you working with over 15 scenarios and judging from the content it would appear that the scenarios were taken from real life situations.

Covering the topics like the OSI model, number conversions, RIP, IGRP, EIRGP, OSPF, VLANs, BGP, MPLS, IS-IS, firewalls and NAT to name a few, you are given router screen shots and step by step instructions to help your learning experience.

There is also a cd included with over 200 practice questions, so overall you have a very good tool. With a few grammar errors that need fixing this book should provide a great of help either for the exam or for the real world.

No book by its self can possibly prepare someone for the CCIE Exam, if there was such a book it would be several thousand pages. But what this book does provide is a detailed outline of exam topics, intoducing you to each topic and providing info at the end of each chapter on were to find out the details. After checking with Cisco Press and looking at the New Exam blueprint this book touches on all the topics listed on the blueprint. A great place to start preparing for the new R&S exam or as a final brush up. This book along with the Doyle books, the CCIE LAN Switching and the Halibi BGP book and your all set.

not follett at his best. the idea is good but the book didn't develop well-would've liked a slower buildup to let me get into the characters and that would've helped me accept where the story was going - very creative; but got there too fast.

It would seem that the dashing, all-intelligent, all-powerful male protagonist might be passe. Ken Follett now shows up with a courageous, smart, female FBI agent who makes her fellow male agents look like self serving, incompetent idiots. Would this have been the character set up in an FBI story of 10 years ago? If J. Edgar Hoover hears about this he will be doing some serious rotating in his grave.

Can the terrorists fulfill their threat to create California earthquakes if their demands are not met? It would seem they could, although Judy Maddox's brainless boob fellow agents scoff and publicly embarrass her. Well we all know what will happen don't we?

It's a fun ride though, and I enjoyed it. As someone who lived for years in the San Francisco area I had an extra pleasure in seeing if a British writer would make any mistakes describing northern California. He did pretty well, making only a few trifling errors, like calling the well known Cala Foods supermarket "Gala" Foods.

Well recommended, although I still think Follett's best books were his first ones.

I liked this book and from page one was enthralled. The obligatory romance(s) could have been left out but in case this is made into a movie they have to be there. It was exciting throughout and delved into the mind of an egotistical maniac.

Like its predecessor, Shield of Lies continues bad characterizations, poor plot and long drawn out writing. The Luke out with a strange woman to learn about his mother story line to just annoying. This female character is simply annoying and Luke does not act all that much like a Jedi Master. Jedi Masters can tell when someone is lying to them! As for Leia the drudgery of political life is draining on her. Eventually stories about the running of a government can get boring and after the first book the Leia and political back-stabbing storyline is old and slow and boring. Han finally gets something to do, but due to the ineptness of the New Republic military (can't imagine how they beat the Empire at all) by the evil, is captured by bigoted Yevetha nazi beings introduced in the first book. Chewie has a subplot involving his son's journey into manhood, while Lando's adventure on the ghost ship is really painful to read. This series could have been so much better but a convoluted plot, poor editing and really awful writing make it among te worst set of books in the Star Wars universe.

This is an interesting story. I hope someday Luke learns who his mother really is.

I don't know what the other reviewers are thinking, this is one of the best trilogies in the entire series. A major complaint seems to be that these books are "all talk and no action," well my little friends, I am sorry that your limited intellect cannot stand plot development and intricate story lines. Unlike a LOT of sci-fi books out there, the Star Wars books actually try to have a story, and a MEANINGFUL, LASTING story at that. Not just blazing light saber/death star/dog fight battles. If you don't have the intellectual capacity to enjoy a good story with good plot lines, that is well written and that explores more than just shooting at people, then I recommend something along the lines of "Pokémon" that would seem to fit with your age group. CHEERS!