Meyer makes a valuable statement on aesthetics, criteria for assessing great works of music, compositional practices and theories of the present day, and predictions of the future of Western culture. His postlude, written for the book's twenty-fifth anniversary, looks back at his thoughts on the direction of music in 1967.

Meaning in Music and Information Theory p. 5
Some Remarks on Value and Greatness in Music p. 22
On Rehearing Music p. 42
Forgery and the Anthropology of Art p. 54
The End of the Renaissance? p. 68
History, Stasis, and Change p. 89
Varieties of Style Change p. 104
The Probability of Stasis p. 134
The Aesthetics of Stability p. 170
The Arguments for Experimental Music p. 245
The Perception and Cognition of Complex Music p. 266
Functionalism and Structure p. 294
Postlude p. 317
Bibliography p. 351
Index p. 363