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Can anyone recommend a book, in English, for an intelligent but non-musician reader, that gives a clear explanation of things like the history and nuts and bolts and theory of Western tone systems (ancient, medieval, classical, 20th-century), chords, harmony, temper systems.
With illustrations would be nice, so you could actually pick around on a piano with the examples.
I always recommend Norman Lebrecht's The Companion to 20Th-Century Music. It is flawed (the author does not hold back his prejudices, but at least you don't have to guess them like most other textbooks) but it is written by a non-musician to other non-musicians. The terms are well explained and there are biographies of almost every 20th composer who is worthwhile. There are some music illustrations but there are never enough for my liking