What was the soundtrack of the American Revolution?

The year is 1776. Imagine you are a Continental soldier fighting for American independence. What’s your going-into-battle pump-up soundtrack?

For our Sense of Place: Philadelphia series, World Cafe took a trip to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia’s historic Old City to hear what the revolution sounded like from experts, like museum director Matthew Skic — who was just 11 when he first started playing the fife.

“I joined a reenactment unit with my dad and one of the ways that I could participate in a reenactment was playing the fife or the drum,” he said.

Skic got into the military sounds of revolution, and you’ll hear from assistant curator Allie Cade, who talked about the music of everyday life during that time.

Join us on a trip to the Museum of the American Revolution on World Cafe.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod.  Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe‘s engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.