Shortest History of Music

Andrew Ford is a composer, writer, and broadcaster who has won awards in each of those capacities. In 2014 he was a Poynter Fellow and visiting composer at Yale University, in 2015 visiting lecturer at the Shanghai Conservatory, and in 2018 HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University. Ford has written widely on all manner of music, published ten previous books, and has written, presented, and coproduced many radio series, mainly for Australia’s national radio.

• IntroductionThe Tradition of Music: from Prehistory to the presentMusic and Notation: Blueprints for Building in Sound from 1400 BCE to the presentMusic for Sale: Paying the Piper from 1000 BCE to the presentMusic and Modernism: Reinventing the Art from 1150 to the presentRecording Music: from 1900 to the presentEpilogue: What Is Music?Further ReadingAcknowledgmentsImage CreditsIndexAbout the Author

"This entertaining contribution to the Shortest History series . . . makes a compelling and informative case for the power and necessity of music."