ABSTRACT
“Listening to the dead” has been a concern since the emergence of history as knowledge of the past. Ever since its Helenic tradition, historiography has created a theoretical universe of “listening to them with the eyes”, and a methodological practice of “listening with the eyes”. In this long trajectory, listening to the world and to men has become secondary in the face of the hegemonic presence of looking, writing and reading. However, in the second half of the 19th Century, this relationship changed profoundly, mainly due to the emergence of the mechanical and later electronic recording of sound, the possibility of its reproduction long after the original creation and emission, and due to the appearance of numerous possibilities of long-distance sound propagation. This auditory turn was quickly integrated into the everyday lives of contemporary men, became a concern of some fields of knowledge, but remained ignored by historiography. Not until recently has historiography become concerned with “listening to the dead” and to the past with its own “ears”, and asked itself how to listen to them with “borrowed ears”. This article seeks specifically to discuss aspects of this trajectory and to introduce issues/questions and historiographical dilemmas related to the universe of sound, listening and music.
Keywords:
historiography; historians; listening; sounds; music