Sound in time

Abstract

Sound heritage is a collection of essays that grew out of study days hosted by the AHRC-funded Sound Heritage network, particularly the 2019 symposium held in London as part of the AHRC project Music, Home and Heritage (2017–21). The book sets out to examine how music can be used to create narratives about people and places, and to explore how sound, material and practice can be integrated into curation and interpretation in historic houses. The collection covers a range of historical periods and heritage settings, mainly discussing historic houses—from the National Trust’s the Vyne and Tatton Park, to Leipzig’s Bach Museum, and Mugga Mugga Cottage in Canberra, Australia—but also museums and musical instrument collections. Key themes include the challenges presented by different types of historic house (including musicians’ former homes); musical instruments in the context of wider collections; and musical objects as storytelling components. A major strength of Sound heritage is its discussion of curatorial practices in heritage spaces and museums: every chapter in this book either features a case study or gives a range of examples from heritage and museum settings, from the present day and the past, and there are colour photographs throughout.