Transmitting Musical Heritage

Music is a cultural product of society, a sonic reflection of ideologies and behaviours – a performative heritage. We questioned what cultural meta-data travels with musical sound as it passes from player to player, or player to audience, and how this takes place.

This research combined the expertise of community partners and academics from the University of Sheffield and addressed the motivations of organisations, musicians, audiences and communities.

We looked into the opportunities and barriers to the implementation of ideals, and the outcomes of engaging in musical activity. We were interested in the duality of approach to community and music: music made by communities and communities made through music.

The research was enabled by an AHRC Connected Communities: Research for Community Heritage grant and running February 2013–January 2014.

Outputs included community music events, a transmission day and this website to convey our findings, alongside academic articles and conference presentations.

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