Song

John Potter, a singer with decades of experience across many genres, offers a personal account of song in Europe. He starts from the idea that songs matter deeply to us whether we sing them or listen to them, and that no two people would pick the same twelve. His own selection comes from years of performing, and he hopes it will show what people share across different eras as the story moves from the Middle Ages to the present.

The account begins with the troubadours and the chant of the Christian liturgy. It then follows the form through classical composers such as Bach and Schumann, on to Britten and Berio, and finally to the rise of popular music.

Potter builds the book around twelve key works, presented as a personal tour that runs from John Dowland's Flow My Tears to George Gershwin's Summertime. For each one, he identifies the composer and the performer behind the piece and explains what it still means to those who sing and listen to it today.