Lately, prompted by Michael Berkeley’s engrossing programme on the BBC, Private Passions, I’ve been asking family and friends what music means to them. Music often connects strongly with memory triggering other senses and emotions. It can be an individual or a collective experience and have different meanings at different times. In a wonderful interview with Emma Barnett Kate Bush reflected that music, the only art form that is invisible, can bring hope, and how necessary that is after the Covid lockdowns that changed us in ways we are only just starting to come to terms with, and the current wars. Nature (with its cacophony of sounds) is often a sanctuary. I haven’t asked anyone yet what the sounds of the natural world mean to them, but I will!

The gasp?

An audio interview is so much more than the words spoken: nuance, tone, intonation, silence and hesitation. All these contribute to the meaning the listener takes on board. Oral historians, like radio interviewers, practice non verbal communication to avoid distracting sounds on the tape. But there are times when the interviewer can be heard. Emma Barnett’s gasp when Kate Bush talks about plans for the future, and the possibility of more music, is one such time. It sealed a perfect interview.