Duet An Artful History of Music

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

'A sensational book. Chan roves across her vast subject with confidence and grace, thrilling the reader with one eye-opening insight after another. I will never see art, and hear music, in quite the same way again' James Fox, author of The World According to Colour

An ancient shaman raises a conch shell to her lips in a painted cave. A scholar in a Shaolin monastery bends over a manuscript and invents a musical scale. A 21st-century pop star takes her seat at a candyfloss-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 - through the instruments we decorate, the spaces we perform in, and in kaleidoscopic paintings, medieval illuminated manuscripts and haute couture.

In this startlingly original and beautifully illustrated 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.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Hardback
ISBN13: 9780715655719
Published: September 2025

Number of pages: 352
Width: 156 mm
Height: 234 mm
Depth: not specified

Publisher: Duckworth Books