Duet

An ancient shaman raises a conch shell to her lips in a painted cave. A Benedictine monk maps musical pitch on his hand. A scholar in a Shaolin monastery bends over a manuscript and invents a musical scale. A twenty-first century pop star takes her seat at a candy-floss pink piano.Music is interwoven into the fabric of our lives. We listen to it. Some of us play it. And from the earliest traces of human existence, we have attempted to capture it – in the instruments we decorate, the spaces we perform in, in kaleidoscopic paintings, medieval illuminated manuscripts and haute couture.In this startlingly original history of music, classically trained musician, art historian and BBC Next Generation Thinker Dr Eleanor Chan takes us on an unforgettable journey through sound and vision that will forever change the way we see music.