Includes index

The what and why of music -- Shadows of an ancient dance -- The poet sings -- Improvising to the lute -- Music as mediation -- The eternal sound of gongs -- Rhythm and community -- Spirits of the ancestors -- Dance and harmony -- Chanting in the church, singing in the streets -- Reason it out, write it down -- Old corruption, new thinking -- Composers spread their wings -- Lutes and keyboards -- Reforming the Church, educating the people -- Conquest and re-conquest -- Sing the words, speak the music -- The appeal of dramatic music -- Instruments and the rise of the orchestra -- Star singers and the opera market -- A composer's life at court and in the Church -- Enlightenment and revolution -- African slaves and fashionable Europe -- Storms, on the stage and in the mind -- Becoming 'classical' -- The artist as priest and visionary -- Grand and light, sublime and witty -- Women playing at home and abroad -- Finding the audience -- Longing for my own country -- Westernising and modernising -- Into the darkness -- Reaching for the light -- From blues and ragtime to jazz -- From big band to bebop -- Reacting to repression -- Just rattle your jewellery -- From protest to pop -- Music in the 'global village' -- Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Human beings have always made music. Music can move us and tell stories of faith, struggle, or love. It is common to all cultures across the world. But how has it changed over the millennia? Robert Philip explores the extraordinary history of music in all its forms, from our earliest ancestors to today's mass-produced songs. This is a truly global story. Looking to Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and beyond, Philip reveals how musicians have been brought together by trade and migration and examines the vast impact of colonialism. From Hildegard von Bingen and Clara Schumann to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, great performers and composers have profoundly shaped music as we know it.

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