Andrew Ford is a composer, writer, and broadcaster, and has won awards in all three capacities, including the prestigious Paul Lowin Prize for his song cycle, Learning to Howl. His music has been played throughout Australia and in more than forty countries around the world. Since 1995 he has presented The Music Show each weekend on ABC Radio National. He is the author of eleven books, including The Song Remains the Same: 800 years of love songs, laments and lullabies (with Anni Heino). We review his new book, The Shortest History of Music.

What was the first performance that made a deep impression on you?

Athol Fugard’s Dimetos at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1976, with Paul Scofield, Yvonne Bryceland, and Ben Kingsley. At the end, Dimetos (Scofield) has a monologue during which he begins to juggle and finally falls about laughing. I imagined making an opera from the play and many years later, when Fugard was in Sydney, asked his permission, which he granted. It hasn’t happened yet.