Howard Goodall's Big Bangs

With intriguing anecdotes and witty humor, composer Howard Goodall presents five innovations in European musical history, which have overwhelmingly changed it's course: NOTATION: The journey from plain chant in medieval times to symphonic works and improvisation, EQUAL TEMPERAMENT (a universal tuning, scale and key system): From the discoveries of Pythagoras to JS Bach, OPERA: where music interfaces with real life with love, death and politics, THE PIANO: this versatile instrument is unique to European culture, RECORDED SOUND: From Caruso to world music and sampling.