Gillian Perrin’s lifelong interest in the formal structures of classical music began at school when she was taught by a former pupil of the renowned music analyst Donald Francis Tovey. She went on to study music at Oxford, followed by postgraduate research on the early sonata under Egon Wellesz – taking her also to search rare collections in London, Cambridge and Vienna. She worked as cataloguer for an antiquarian music bookseller, and now enjoys freelance writing and lecturing about music. She lives in north London with her husband, a 19th-century square fortepiano and a wilful garden.
This is a book about classical music – for people who say they love music “but don’t understand how it works”, as well as for performers and music students of all ages.Proposing that deeper enjoyment begins with an understanding of music’s basic structures, the book describes how the simpl...
