The Shortest History of Music
From Bone Flutes to Synthesizers, Hildegard von Bingen to Beyoncé―5,000 Years of Instrument and Song
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The Shortest History of Music
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Todd Ross
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By:
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Andrew Ford
About this listen
No art form is as widely discussed—or as readily available—as music. With the click of just a few buttons, modern humans can decide what they think of the brand-new Beyoncé just as quickly as they can form opinions on Brahms or the Beatles or Bob Dylan. But things weren't always this way. In this brisk, breakneck history, award-winning musician and broadcaster Andrew Ford dives into the constant evolutions and reinventions that have led to the popularity and accessibility of modern music.
Ford explores:
- Why playing history's earliest example of notated music—clay tablets from 1400 BCE Syria—doesn't produce a consistent sound.
- How colonization and the slave trade led to one region in West Africa having an unparalleled influence on world music.
- How clerical and royal support allowed early composers to invent the symphony.
- What leads humans to make music in the first place—and why music plays such a massive role in our culture.
The Shortest History of Music takes us on a lively tour through several thousands of years of music history, tracing our relationship with this essential art and allowing us to freshly appreciate and understand music today.
©2024 Andrew Ford (P)2025 Tantor Media