Gosh, it's been a long time since I posted on here :)

I just wanted to say that, for me, I can enjoy hearing or learning a song much more if I know something about its context and the journey it has taken, to get to where it is when I hear it. I would also think that, from Lizzie's perspective, it would be invaluable - even if we don't know the name of the individual who wrote a particular song, knowing the period it came from throws light on what the creator(s) would have been concerned about or the mood of the 'peasants'.

Tangental but, I would have enjoyed doing Thomas Hardy much more, at school, if the historical context had been given to me (both as to when and why he was writing the books and the context of the periods they were set in) and I would have appreciated the books more if I'd been able to understand what the concerns of his characters were.      

For me, context is all - I'm afraid I rarely just enjoy a song or a piece of music without it. Maybe it's my loss ... dunno ...