>>> John B. Bunch <[log in to unmask]> - 10/9/96 10:19 AM >>> Query: Anyone have anything of interest to address the question of how/why/what kinds of music is instructionally or thematically fitting to exhibits? If you use it, what were the criteria for doing so? For selecting the particular music? And what have been the visitor reactions, if any? John Bunch **************** Dear John: We've used music in several of our temporary exhibits and have it in our permanent galleries as well. We pick interesting music from the time period that is performed on original instruments, or try to get original recordings. For instance, for our Civil War exhibit, our curator chose a recording of a tune called "Aura Lee." It was an interesting song because it was the tune Elvis used for "Love Me Tender." However, it is always a good idea to include a variety of tunes, because even though the visitors liked it, after 7 months, we had very irritable security guards. Next spring, we're doing an exhibit on the 1950s and our AV archivist found a set of CDs of 50s music. We'll choose from that, and he'll rig up an old, broken juke box to play the CDs. I believe that there are catalogs of this music. If you're interested, I can look into it for you. One concern in the galleries is the volume of the music (this is more true of videos, though). We have docents who complain if the music or video is too loud to talk over, but many of our elderly "visitors" (and I choose this word with care) can't hear if the volume is too low. It's hard to make everyone happy, but I think the music adds quite a bit to create an atmosphere. Christine Mouw Assistant Curator Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum West Branch, Iowa 52358 [log in to unmask]