From the prehistoric past to the digital present, composer, broadcaster and writer Andrew Ford’s The Shortest History of Music condenses 40,000 years of “organised sound” into a book of around 200 pages.

Speaking to Limelight, Ford stresses that his new book isn’t a traditional chronological account. History, in this case, isn’t just ‘one thing after another’. Instead, Ford has focused on key themes and how they have echoed through the ages.

Limelight: Firstly, can you speak a little on the back story to you writing the book? It was a commission from the publisher [Black Ink], yes?

AF: Yes, it’s part of a series. I think the first one was published 12 years ago, maybe more. There’s The Shortest History of Economics, The Shortest History of War, The Shortest History of Democracy, and lots of others. I was told to keep my book to somewhere between 40 and 60,000 words, and to aim for 40,000. The idea is that it should be a book that you can pick up after lunch and have finished by dinner time.

By the time I was done, it was about 48,000 words, which is pretty tight, I think. I’ve...