INSIGHTS: Music, heritage, place: A decentralised history of English music

This collaborative project, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, has been investigating music manuscripts and printed music from c.1550 to c.1850 held in local archives across England. The project examines and catalogues over 600 music manuscripts and items of printed music held in England’s county record offices, exploring how the archival discoveries can be reworked for present-day audiences to inspire a new generation of musicians.

Stephen Rose (pictured top) is a specialist in music history of the 16th to 18th centuries, especially in German-speaking lands and in England. He uses methods from book history, social history and the digital humanities to understand how music travelled between communities, and to illuminate attitudes to the writing and performing of music in this era. He currently leads the collaborative project Music, Heritage, Place: Unlocking the Musical Collections of England's County Record Offices, funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, which is discovering and documenting the musical sources between 1550 and 1850 held in local archives, and opening new, decentralised understandings of English music in this period.

Kirsten Gibson’s (pictured middle) work situates early modern music in wider cultural, social and political contexts. Her research interests include: early modern debates about music; music, gender and social class in early modern England; theorising history through sound studies; the sale and circulation of printed music in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries; the social and geographical spread of recreational music making; vernacular musical culture; and recovering evidence for musical life in early modern North-East England. Kirsten’s methododologies draw on archival research, close readings of musical and textual primary materials, and drawing widely on approaches from outside the field of musicology – particularly from literature studies, gender studies and book and print history. Her work seeks to challenge traditional narratives of music history, to bring early modern musical culture into conversation with broader cultural histories, and to establish new perspectives on English music from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Nancy Kerr (pictured bottom) is a folk educator with over 25 years’ teaching experience in both formal and informal education settings. She qualified in Clinical Music Therapy with Professor Leslie Bunt at Bristol University, and continues to practice as a therapeutically-informed community musician in a range of settings. Nancy has led workshops and choirs and taught 1:1 at festivals, residential courses, schools and universities in the UK, Australia, Canada, Europe and Asia. Her music psychotherapy background informs her practice as a facilitator of client-led music-making throughout the lifespan. Nancy was awarded Hon. Prof of Composition & Performance at Leeds Conservatoire in 2021. She has been guest tutor for the National Youth Folk Ensemble (NYFE) and workshop leader/adjudicator for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award, and continues to work as Stagecraft Mentor for English Folk Expo and Brighter Sounds UK as part of their emerging artists support schemes.

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