The History of Sound (2025)

This is a quiet movie, muted in both tone and cinematography, and while that sometimes drives me crazy, the slow lazy pace of it is suited to the material. The one thing that is not restrained is when they are going on about the music. And then it bursts with passion and pure emotion. The folk songs that provide the film’s spine spring from a deeply authentic place, infused with a love of storytelling and a yearning for connection with the past. It is is about the romance that forms between two men who find each other through their shared love of the timeless tunes from country people. One is from Kentucky and the other has visited the villages of England and they are deeply drawn to these often sad ballads. Because of the period when the story takes place, World War I, theirs is a love that cannot be. These two men who couldn’t be more different outside their mutual obsession with music. His story begins in 1910 Kentucky, where, in an opening voiceover (the wise, gravelly tones of Chris Cooper), we learn that young Lionel is a musical prodigy. He has perfect pitch; his mother sneezes, and he can name that note. His ability lifts him out of rural poverty and carries him to the elite Boston Conservatory to study vocal performance. After a brief separation when David goes off to fight in the war—“Don’t die,” Lionel orders as he leaves—they eventually reunite to travel throughout rural Maine, knocking on doors and recording the folk songs that families have passed down from one generation to the next. This section is the heart of the film and gives it real spark--the power behind the vocal performances is undeniable. From front porches and kitchen tables, the ability of music to transform and transcend is evident. Afterwards they head their seperate ways, with this time leaving a shadow across Lionel's life that he eventually needs to unpack, and what is revealed to him is sad and inevitable. The one thing that has stuck with me is that the story is told at a time when this music was under appreciated and catalogued, but that changed in my life time, thank goodness.