Duet

An Artful History of Music

Dr. Eleanor Chan

$55

Hardback

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English

Duckworth
18 September 2025

History of Art & Design Styles; Music; Musicals; Techniques of music & music tutorials; History: specific events & topics

'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.

By: Dr. Eleanor Chan
Imprint: Duckworth
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780715655719
ISBN 10: 071565571X
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 18 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Eleanor Chan grew up in Brighton & Hove and studied at the University of Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is an art historian, singer and BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

Reviews for Duet: An Artful History of Music

'Scholarly, moving and with an epic scope, Chan's work shows why music is at the core of what it means to be human' Paul Cooper, author of Fall of Civilizations