Andrew Ford is a composer, writer and broadcaster and presents The Music Show on ABC Radio National. His awards include the Paul Lowin Prize for his song cycle Learning to Howl, a Green Room Award for his opera Rembrandt’s Wife, and the Geraldine Pascall Prize for critical writing. In 2009 he was resident composer at the Australian National Academy of Music. The Sound of Pictures is his sixth book. His study of music in the twentieth century, Illegal Harmonies, will be reissued by Black Inc. in 2011.