This lecture took place on Thursday 13 February 2014
Silence, stillness and reverential listening: these are the defining characteristics of a well-behaved audience for western art music the world over. They are relatively recent. In this lecture, nineteenth-century Paris offers a sometimes rowdy laboratory in which to examine where, why and how a new 'gold standard' of attentiveness met its match.
Professor Katharine Ellis - inaugural lecture
Please note that due to licensing laws we are unable to play the musical extracts from Professor Ellis' lecture. The music and the point during the lecture that they were played are listed below: