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Duet: An Artful History of Music
Eleanor Chan
ISBN: 9780715655719 (Duckworth Books, Book)
Hardback
Number of pages: 336 pages
© 2025 Duckworth Books
Review received and scheduled for publication
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 history of music, classically trained musician and art historian Eleanor Chan takes us on an unforgettable journey through sound and vision that will forever change the way we see music.