Dear Diary,
Neil Brand is prince amongst men and his documentaries are fucking awesome.
This 3-part series on the history of song is getting some serious airplay from me at the moment. I am watching the episodes again and again.
And one of the things that I particularly love is that he is looking at the history of music in terms of the one thing that I believe has been the most influential: technology.
In fact, I was going to write an extended blog article myself at some point doing pretty much the same thing (although nowhere near as well). He focuses particularly recording technology. I was going to concentrate mainly on printing technology: how the development of standard notation and the rise of the printing press helped to spread music and cross-fertilise ideas. Maybe some day.
Anyway, put your feet up and prepare to say ‘Really? I didn’t know that!’ a lot.
