The sound of history and acoustic memory: Where psychology and history converge

Abstract

Historians have reconstructed the past mainly by the study of texts; only recently have they turned their attention to the analysis of images. They have abstained almost entirely, however, from using their ears when exploring the past: they have been content with the sound of silence. This can be explained in part by the scarcity of authentic acoustic sources which have existed only for the time period since about 1900. Historical studies focusing on the function of listening in the past, the soundscapes of earlier epochs and the significance of acoustic signals are rare. This article attempts to sketch the social and cultural meaning of listening and the impact of our perception of sounds on our view of the world; it shows what historians can hear of the past and what remains inaudible; it discusses the effects of the inaudibility of the past on our historical understanding; and finally it presents some new perspectives for historical research dealing with the history of listening, with historical soundscapes and their meaning.

The Sound of the Past: Sound in the Exhibition at the Danish Museum Mosede Fort, Denmark 1914–18

“…The museum has traditionally been a visual space; a place for vision more than hearing. Jürgen Müller points out, that historians have been using written sources, and, more recently, pictures and images as their most important historical material to recreate the past – both kinds of sources are verceived visually (Müller : 444). Müller points out, that hearing is a source of information, and a sophisticated tool of orientation both physical and social, and therefore historians may earn a lot about a given historical period by listening to its particular sounds (Müller : 446–447).…”

“…Jürgen Müller points out, that historians have been using written sources, and, more recently, pictures and images as their most important historical material to recreate the past – both kinds of sources are verceived visually (Müller : 444). Müller points out, that hearing is a source of information, and a sophisticated tool of orientation both physical and social, and therefore historians may earn a lot about a given historical period by listening to its particular sounds (Müller : 446–447). For decades, however, contemporary art – including sound art – has sought to captivate museum visitors’ ears; the use of sound as a means of creating an atmosphere and supporting the visual exhibition has also grown increasingly common at historical museums.…”

The art of noise: Comment on The sound of silence

“…As proposed by Mu¨ller (2012), sounds play a key role in people's daily experience, but also in their relationship to others, the world and themselves.…”

“…In terms of cultural history, how specific sounds became identified, admired, reproduced, or created, becomes one question -which Boesch addresses in his sociogenetic analysis of the sound of violin (2007), or that is at the heart of Mu¨ller's (2012) project of a history of sounds.…”

“…. '' (Simonds, 1988, p. 45) Listening to Martin King's ''I have a dream'' is a different experience than reading the same sentence (Mu¨ller, 2012), and reading an account of the numbers of deaths in the world war trenches has nothing to do with a description of the sonar environment in which young men have learned to live (see for instance Remarque's [1928Remarque's [ /1989 depiction of his ear-recognition of various types of flying and exploding bombs). In an engaged article, Mu¨ller (2012) brings us to reflect about the importance of sounds in our experience of the world, and shows how partial and incomplete depictions of the past would be without recordings of their aural quality, or at least depictions of their sounds.…”