Since lockdown began six (or is it seven?) millenia ago, I have begun to realise how reliant I am on the companionship of sound, and of classical music in particular.

I wake up to Russell Torrance and his gentle Scottish brogue on Classic FM, then move on to my late father’s CD collection for the rest of my working-from-home day. Once meticulously filed in alphabetical order in his study, it’s now a jumbled pile in his old bedroom – my current retreat. I sift through it for old favourites – the B for Bach, H for Handel and M for Mozart sections were always heavily weighted on Dad’s shelves – and spend hours every day of this 21st  century pandemic immersed in 18th century music.

Elizabeth Quinn’s new working-from-home office in her father’s old bedroom. Photograph © Elizabeth Quinn

In the early stages of lockdown, I set myself a goal to learn more about the mechanics of music and what it is that appeals to me so much about the baroque period. I love what my father called the ‘pompty-pom’ of the exuberant Italian (and many German) composers. But I’m most focused on pinpointing...