ABSTRACT
The Vyne, a National Trust property near Basingstoke, Hampshire, has used musical interventions to engage visitors and students with both Tudor and nineteenth-century stories, working across spaces and historical divides to reflect the unique history of the site and its collections. A creative response to adversity presented the initial inspiration for sonic exploration of The Vyne's Tudor history. The soundscape drew on recent research in late medieval liturgical reconstruction and provided opportunities to extend this in new directions. The National Trust made significant efforts to measure the impacts of the “Lifting the Lid” project on visitors through a combination of survey methods. The rosewood grand piano in the Saloon was made by the London firm of John Broadwood & Sons and was a top-of-the-line instrument for its time. Interviews with students underlined novel aspects of playing the historic instrument, including slower release of the piano's action and the softer touch required to strike the keys in comparison to modern pianos.
