Award-winning broadcaster and composer, Andrew Ford, will be in conversation with Malcolm Gillies on his new book The Shortest History of Music, an entertaining and thought-provoking trip through the fascinating history of music.

Packed with colourful characters and surprising details, it sets out to understand what exactly music is – and why humans are irresistibly drawn to making it. This is not a traditional chronological account. Instead, Andrew Ford focuses on key themes in the history of music and considers how they have played out across the ages.

How has music interacted with other social forces, such as religion and the economy? How have technological changes shaped the kinds of music humans make? From lullabies to concert halls, songlines to streaming services, what has music meant to humans at different times and in different places?

Andrew Ford OAM is a composer, writer and broadcaster who has won awards in each of those capacities. He has been composer-in-residence for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In 2014 he was Poynter Fellow and visiting composer at Yale University, in 2015 visiting lecturer at the Shanghai Conservatory, and in 2018 HC Coombs Creative Arts Fellow at the Australian National University. Ford has written widely on all manner of music and published eleven books. He has written, presented and co-produced five radio series for the ABC and, since 1995, presented The Music Show each weekend on Radio National.

Emeritus Professor Malcolm Gillies AM FAHA is an internationally recognised authority on the composers Percy Grainger and Bela Bartok and has written or edited more than a dozen books, including ‘Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger’, which gained an award of the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2007, as well as over 100 articles. He is a former ANU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) and Vice-President (Development) and former Vice-Chancellor of both City University, London and London Metropolitan University.

The vote of thanks will be given by Robyn Holmes FAHA, former Senior Curator of Music, National Library of Australia.

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm and again after the event.

Additional Information:

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A podcast will be made available after the event.

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