Welcome to Sounding History

Sounding History tracks the global history of people making music and sound over the past 500 years. Scientists call this era, in which the West has colonized much of the “rest” of the world, the Anthropocene: an epoch in which human societies have collided with one another, and with the planet itself.

Your hosts are two music historians tired of stiff stories about composers and works. We want to talk about people and the soundworlds they lived in during centuries of upheaval and violence, in the shadow of colonialism, and the global climate emergency that has emerged from it. 

As music historians we have access to the sounds people made, and how they listened. That’s our job! Sounding History asks: What have these 500 years sounded like? Whose voices are heard, and whose have been silenced? In each episode we’ll share unheard tales of innovation, resistance, resilience and, yes, great music of all stripes from the Delta Blues to revolutionary symphonies. Come listen to this history with us, so that together we can better understand where we are right now, and what we can do to create a more sustainable future.