Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve
Archeologists have unearthed ancient bone flutes, their exact age impossible to determine. Drums made with wood and skin, too, would have been played for millennia but their materials could not endure as have the primitive bone flutes. This is evidence that music in its many forms has been a part of human existence for as long as we can estimate.
Through time, music has changed and evolved into the various sounds which today are enjoyed by people all over the world with the technology which enables them to listen to a vast range of whatever appeals.
The history of music is complex, the development fascinating, and the subject itself could fill volumes. Andrew Ford, himself a composer and highly regarded broadcaster, is well qualified to attempt ‘a shortest history’ of his subject. Not only does he touch on the great Classical composers such as Bach and Beethoven, the Romantics, the likes of Rachmaninov and the Modernists, Stravinsky and Schoenberg, he moves on to the jazz and blues age followed by the pop culture of the 50s to the present.
Music is intrinsic to human society, be it the rhythmic song of the African slaves labouring in the fields, folk songs of villagers telling tales, poets celebrating its beauty, even the urging of soldiers into battle. The numbers of discarded trumpets and bugles after the Civil War were seized by the black Americans who planted the seeds of jazz, playing their unique songs.
This brief journey into musical history has much to offer in the detail and often fascinating facts. He gives an account of the glorious composition by Thomas Tallis, Spem in Alium, where Elizabethans heard 40 choristers produce a motet of exquisite sound. In the 12th century, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, brilliant in many academic fields, wrote church music which delights today. Not universally popular, Berg and Schoenberg in the last century composed works in the 12-tone scale (chromatic) instead of the time-honoured eight notes.
Music is important in political life. The rallying national song, The Marseillaise, heard often at the Paris Olympics, emerged during the French Revolution. Mao in 1966 regarded Western classical music as ‘dirt left behind’, this resulted in 500 pianos being destroyed. Ironically, now China manufactures 70% of the world’s pianos and 50% of all musical instruments.
Andrew Ford tells us that Orchestras play in most countries, in Asia, South America and Europe. However, their musical performance is not limited to the recognised classical canon. These regions have their own rich musical traditions played on their own instruments.
Once it was the wealthy who listened to live performances. Today, communities are no longer excluded or isolated. Technology has democratised music in the multitude of forms. Huge music festivals, recordings and streaming services extend the possibility of enjoying a choice of performance of any genre.
The most significant factor of this small book for me is that I now regard Wagner in a different light and am very willing to explore more of his work. Andrew Ford illumines the complex genius of his great oeuvre, The Ring Cycle.
An amusing anecdote tells that during Wagner’s concerts, the audience would loudly talk and laugh. He decided that, if the lighting were turned down, this would gain their attention. Not only was this ploy successful, it survives to this day.
It is impossible to convey enough of the substance and value of this small treasure. It would be accessible to all regardless of their musical taste and knowledge. A pleasure to read, Ford’s book celebrates a form created by humans with infinite possibilities, and in myriad ways has had the ability to add a unique richness to life from the dawn of history ….
This quote from Byron surely reminds us of its importance and its stature in our lives….
“There’s music in all things, if men had ears;
The earth is but the music of the spheres.”
The Shortest History of Music
by Andrew Ford
[2024]
Black Books Inc
ISBN 978 176064 408 6
$27.99; 210pp