Imagined voices. Origins, myths and muses -- Historical voices. The genesis of the Western tradition ; The emerging soloist and the primacy of text ; The age of the virtuoso ; The nineteenth-century revolution -- Recorded voices. A great tradition : singing through history-history through singing ; Classical singing in the twentieth century : recording and retrenchment ; Post-classical : beyond the mainstream ; The emancipation of the popular voice ; Sung and unsung : singers and songs of the non-English-speaking world.