Damn. Now we clearly need for Dorian to read both of them, because she actually knows music and might be able to tell us whether and to what extent that helps. At first I was going to say, no, it must be something else, because I don't know much about music either.

But then I thought about it and realized you may well be right. I don't know much music, but I have just enough exposure to the Western canon to be familiar with both the original piano version of Pictures At an Exhibition and with the orchestration, and to have an opinion about them. So it may be that in fact, what I know is the minimum necessary to really love the book.