Voices from the past

A new compendium gathering 600 years of first-hand accounts of music, art and society gives a fascinating insight, says Simon Heighes

- Simon Heighes

This is not a book to be read from cover to cover. It’s a long-time companion, to be dipped into, studied and savoured. With nearly 3,000 entries, 560 pictures and a chronological sweep of 600 years, The Pursuit of Musick offers a breath-taking journey through music history, from medieval troubadours to the invention of the piano. For Judith Weir, Master of the King’s Music, ‘It’s a version of musical history which we always needed but could never have imagined.’

Andrew Parrott, director of the Taverner Choir and well-known for his pioneering recordings of music from Machaut to Bach, has come up with a unique design. Part anthology, part encyclopaedia, it’s a rich mixture of music, art and social history. Divided into three parts – Society, Ideas and Performance – he’s assembled a lifetime’s collection of what he calls the ‘nuggets of music history’: insightful snippets from every conceivable writer on music, from informal diarists and correspondents to official chroniclers, historians and theorists.