Music is our oldest social activity. It crosses divides of age, race, gender, class and religion, and is inherently social: A birthday isn’t properly marked without the communal singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ and music underscores our traditions and identifies us culturally. Surviving historical manuscripts give us a really good overview of what music was played at any given period in history, but it is through works of art that we can see how music affected people’s lives – how they would have enjoyed it and who would have played it. Sophie illustrated this using images by artists such as Bruegel, Bosch and Hogarth, and by giving us musical demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted. 81 members thoroughly enjoyed this stimulating event, the last one in Festival Church before our move to Northgate Church.