ABSTRACT
For years, history sounded silent. The primacy given to written archives gradually gave way to a growing interest in images, colors, and emotions-yet sounds and voices long remained metaphorical. This chapter traces the emergence of music in the historical field, from the writings of Henri-Irénée Marou and Eric Hobsbawm-who both used a pen name to write on music-to the recent affirmation of a social and cultural history of music in France. It examines the main lines of this new research agenda that aims to decode the acoustic and musical dimensions of past societies, opening a fruitful dialogue with musicology and sound studies.
