Music found in commonplace books, personal notebooks of indispensable knowledge. Hear it performed live!

In times when access to paper and ink was limited, you could learn a lot about what someone valued from their commonplace book. If music made it into someone’s precious pages, then it must have meant a lot to them. Join us for an hour of ordinary people’s musical treasures found tucked between pages of 15th-17th century recipes, inspirational quotes, poems, and medicinal cures. Help us celebrate these powerful examples of music’s ability to amplify the areas in which people have always found and made meaning: family care, spirituality, work, and play.

We’re excited to welcome members of the local literary and book arts communities to help us celebrate and explore the theme of commonplace books. Local bookbinders Laurel Rogers of Passionato Books and Matthew Lawler Zimmerman of Studio Alcyon will display some of their work at the concert. The doors will open at 7pm to allow for extra viewing time. And Karolina Zapal, writer and Program Manager at the Massachusetts Center for the Book, will read a poem from a commonplace book featured on the concert program.