partch first presents a polemic against both equal temperament and the long history of stagnation in the teaching of music; according to alex ross, this is "the most startling forty-five-page history of music ever written". in particular, partch holds johann sebastian bach responsible for "the movement toward equal-tempered tuning, which meant that composers could not absorb the scales of other world traditions; and the urge to make music ever more instrumental and abstract."