Author(s): Ed Le Brocq

Music, Film, Television

Ed Le Brocq invites you to come on a journey with him through a living tradition that spans a millennium - the tradition of Western classical music.

Have you ever wondered where our music comes from? How did we arrive here, a place where we can have a hundred musicians on stage playing the wildest rhythms, a singer performing the most heart-breaking of melodies, or a solitary pianist playing an instrument that weights half a tonne? How did the melodies and harmonies we listen to today, right now, come about?

This glorious pocket guide will take you roaming along the magnificently bendy path of Western classical music, from the Ancient Greeks of two and a half thousand years ago all the way to music composed just last week by some of Australia's most brilliant creative minds. Discover how scales developed by Pythagoras and his mates in Ancient Greece found their way, through the Romans, into the Church music of the Middle Ages to be sung by monks with surprising haircuts. You'll find out why a tiny pianist kept a frog in his pocket, and who was afraid of the number 13 (and why we should be a little afraid of his music), and which composer had two skulls in their grave and why. Hint - they were a viola player ...

This canter through the development of one of humankind's greatest achievements will leave you delighted, exhilarated and wanting more.