When researching my ancestors' lives the quest is mostly silent. In bygone days when the search was a more intense endeavour, occasional shouts of "Eureka" might break the silence but those moments were few and far between. But the past was not a silent place. People then may not have been cursed with the sound of rush hour traffic but their highways and byways would not have been quiet. Imagine creaking wheels and the sound of horses or oxen pulling the wagon or carriage or the sounds of mobs gathering for protest or spectacle (not to mention the smell, but that's another subject.) But those kinds of sounds were byproducts. What about sounds that are intentionally made - like music.
Making music has been a part of the human experience for millennia. Did the music hall figure in an ancestor's story? Perhaps they were play goers. There's often music involved in the theatre. In the bid to understand our forebears their entertainment shouldn't be overlooked.
A guided tour I took this year that took me from Nashville to New Orleans, reminded me of how music can be a soundtrack to our own lives. Tunes can invoke a feeling or bring forth memories. How did they affect people in the past? Before the days of TV, many affluent people had pianos in their homes and family sing songs were a part of some home repertoires. Adding more sound to family tales can help to bring their stories alive. That reminds me, I really should find out what tunes were popular in the North during the Civil War.
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