"In this series I'm going to look at five of the great breakthroughs that European music has experienced in its extraordinary history; five momentous discoveries. I also want to show what they mean to us today; at a time when so-called classical music is being absorbed into a much bigger mainstream and when its 1,000-year reign seems to be coming to a close." HOWARD GOODALL

With intriguing anecdotes and witty humor, composer Howard Goodall presents five innovations in European musical history, which have overwhelmingly changed its course:

NOTATION: the journey from plain chant in medieval times to symphonic works and improvisation

EQUAL TEMPERAMENT (a universal tuning, scale and key system): from the discoveries of Pythagoras to J.S. Bach

OPERA: where music interfaces with real life with love, death and politics

THE PIANO: this versatile instrument is unique to European culture.

RECORDED SOUND: from Caruso to world music and sampling