The collective monograph Sounding the Past. Music as History and Memory is a joint work by all researchers involved in the European HERA project “Sound Memories: The Musical Past in Late–Medieval and Early–Modern Europe” (www.soundme.eu), which ran from 2016 to 2019 at five academic institutions (Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, University of Cambridge, Charles University, Polish Academy of Sciences, Universität Zürich).

The title systematically discusses various forms of relationship to the past that significantly influenced the formation of European musical culture in the late Middle Ages and early modern period. Readers are invited on a journey of discovery across the continent, from the beginnings of a new understanding of musical history in Paris in the early 13th century to the Reformation, when older music played complex and multifaceted roles, whether in musical sources themselves, communities, or even entire regions. Special attention is paid to the use of older styles and musical traditions in the changing construction of religious and political identity. This lays the foundation for a revision of the narrative of European music history and its anchoring in the plurality of styles and regional cultures preserved in the sources. The volume concludes with reflections on the relationship of our time to the musical past, its influence on compositional practice, musical interpretation, musicological discourse, and other spheres of life. Lenka Hlávková, David Eben, and Jan Ciglbauer contributed to this publication on behalf of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University.

Karl Kügle (ed.): Sounding the Past. Music as History and Memory. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020.

The electronic version of the book is available here: https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/book/10.1484/M.EM-EB.5.120601