In the first of these selections (a preface to the book you read a chapter from for Monday) Frank locates his views relative to others of the American Legal Realists. But it may not be entirely obvious that he often focused on psychological issues when discussing factors affecting the course of legal proceedings (notice the title of the book this is a preface to).

That aspect of Frank’s approach is also not especially pronounced in “Words and Music,” originally an after-dinner talk. But this second selection does illustrate one difference in emphasis from Llewellyn, a focus on judicial interpretation.

“Words and Music” is not an argument for the Realists’s approach in the way the papers by Holmes and Llewellyn were, and it’s fair just to read it for its own sake, asking how illuminating it is about the law. But you should also look for connections with Holmes and Llewellyn and ask yourself if there is anything in it a natural law theorist (like Aquinas) or legal positivist (like Austin) might disagree with.