The easiest way to make music is by singing songs, especially if you have the tune in your head. People in the past had to make do with the city’s carillon, annual visits to fairs, the church organ and the city musicians. There were songs for every occasion. They resounded around the family dinner table, at school, in the streets, in church, outdoors with a lover, at country people’s festivities, at weddings, on journeys, on board ships or passenger barges, at work or in the theatre. This type of song provides the basis for this Top 40 project, which starts from the 40 most commonly used melodies of the period 1535-1750.