It is remarkable just how many of our social events and ceremonies – from children’s parties to funerals – include music, either pre-recorded or played live.  So ubiquitous is this practice that very often we, as historians, either ignore it or just refer to it in the passing; ‘this was followed by some music’, ‘a few tunes were then played.’  Yet this ‘failure’ to recognise the role played by music exists alongside a general understanding of music as a ‘universal language’ and a language that is perhaps unique in its ability to affect and stimulate emotion.  There is, I would argue, a historical blind spot in how we appreciate the role played by music. Somehow it does not lend itself to in-depth or sustained analysis in the way that physical objects or written texts do.  For me this became clear when I began to research the memorialisation of World War One in Scotland. Continue reading →