As I like learning about history as well, having historical music education helps tie things together also. You can follow who are the trendy cultural centers of the time, and different countries get the best composers, and just the attitudes of the people of the time, if you have songs meant to be played by some rich guys full orchestra, or one person playing folk music on a single instrument. With being the musician, you’re not an observer, you’re trying to embody the spirit that song was composed to share with others. It’s like a very basic time machine if you really get into what you’re doing. I think it’s really cool stuff!