It is usual for books like this to begin with the momentous changes in art music composition that took place around 1900. That is logical enough. But rather than dwelling on isolated moments, each of our chapters examines a topic as it developed over the course of many decades – and when the twentieth century is seen as a whole, it is clear that what best defines that period is not any single artistic approach but the huge developments in technology, travel and trade that, over the course of 100 years, effectively ‘shrank’ the planet (Harvey 1989). Most people in 1900 would live and die where they were born, and the music they made and listened to was often reflective of their immediate cultural surroundings. Certainly, some music cultures already had an international dimension: German, French, Italian and Russian art music was heard across the West and was beginning to take root in Asia (➔). But, by 2000, a hugely expanded version of that internationalism was the norm.