Uncovering and interpreting many rare archival sources, this study reveals in vivid detail a fascinating mosaic of a virtually unknown area of music history. Irving uses the metaphor of counterpoint to explicate how music in early modern Manila was influenced by a pluralistic mixture of styles from around the world. By a whisker, in a great year for history books, I nominate Colonial Counterpoint: Music in Early Modern Manila by DRM Irving (OUP) because it inspires the excitement of a new departure in historical tradition and the awareness of new possibilities for the future. Never before has a writer done such a perfect job of making music a subject of cultural history and writing about it intelligibly for every kind of readership. I've struggled unsuccessfully to get music into my own classes and books; DRM Irving has found the right idiom as if by magic. And, by the way, he has made a fundamental contribution to the study of early modern empires and of the Filipino past.