Clive Bate

Clive Bate has written two books on the history of music. "In Search of Real Music" covers the years 1600 to 2000. "Music in Western Europe before AD1600" provides a matching prequel. Both are published by Fast-Print Publishing and are available on Amazon.

Clive played the violin in the National Youth Orchestra and several other amateur orchestras. After a career outside music, he decided there was a need for a concise history of classical music which provided a chronological context for the music of the famous composers. He wanted to explain how musical fashions changed and how composers were supported, for example, by instrument makers, publishers and the architects of concert halls. His first book appeared in 2012.

His second book (2016) narrates the story of how music developed in the ancient world and then through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in Europe. This is a straightforward introduction to plainchant and the great age of vocal polyphony, the medieval chansons and the madrigal. The series of innovations which paved the way for the baroque and classical ages, such as musical notation, provides a constant stream of interest.