Gresham College Lectures

The first of two lectures in 2016 by Fulbright Scholars. This talk is about American Military History: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-american-way-of-war-in-history-and-politics
The recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have provoked intense discussion both inside and outside the United States on the nature of a distinct 'American Way of War'.
This lecture addresses the intellectual antecedents of this term and its role in shaping both scholarly and military ideas about how the USA conducts war.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-american-way-of-war-in-history-and-politics
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,900 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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What did it mean for to cry in response to music?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears

According to one early-medieval author, ‘there are many who are moved by the sweetness of singing to bewail their sins, and who are readily brought to tears by the sweet sounds of a singer’. A thousand years later, Hector Berlioz tells how a musician was so moved during the performance of an opera that ‘two streams of tears burst violently from his eyes, and he wept so hard that I was compelled to lead him out of the hall’. Tears and music have a long history together, but a show of tears means different things at different times. The purpose of this lecture is to explore the nature of a lachrymose response in the medieval experience of music.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

A lecture on dancing in medieval England and its contentious place in society alongside the increasingly sombre influence of the church: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

During the eighteenth century, Western Europe gradually relinquished a form of musical experience that had been vital to the life of royal courts, town squares and streets for the best part of a thousand years: the company dance performed by dancers, especially young women, holding hands and moving in a ring or a line. Medieval poems, sermons, chronicles and a great many other kinds of writing reveal much about these dances: where they were performed, when, by whom and to what effect, enabling us to restore a picture that has greatly faded over the centuries.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

What did it mean for to cry in response to music?: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears
According to one early-medieval author, 'there are many who are moved by the sweetness of singing to bewail their sins, and who are readily brought to tears by the sweet sounds of a singer'. A thousand years later, Hector Berlioz tells how a musician was so moved during the performance of an opera that 'two streams of tears burst violently from his eyes, and he wept so hard that I was compelled to lead him out of the hall'. Tears and music have a long history together, but a show of tears means different things at different times. The purpose of this lecture is to explore the nature of a lachrymose response in the medieval experience of music.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-chant-in-a-vale-of-tears
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: https:///www.instagram.com/greshamcollege
 

Support the show

A lecture on dancing in medieval England and its contentious place in society alongside the increasingly sombre influence of the church: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

During the eighteenth century, Western Europe gradually relinquished a form of musical experience that had been vital to the life of royal courts, town squares and streets for the best part of a thousand years: the company dance performed by dancers, especially young women, holding hands and moving in a ring or a line. Medieval poems, sermons, chronicles and a great many other kinds of writing reveal much about these dances: where they were performed, when, by whom and to what effect, enabling us to restore a picture that has greatly faded over the centuries.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

Jeremy Summerly and the St Luke’s of Chelsea Choir return to Gresham College to deliver a history of the Christmas Carol: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro

At the end of the Georgian era, a revivalist collection of Christmas music was published by the MP for Bodmin and another by a Cornish solicitor. Half a century later, a Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols was celebrated on Christmas Eve 1880 in the cathedral at Truro.

This lecture, with live musical illustrations, shows how the rustic English carol was preserved in the villages of the West Country and later served back to Cornish urbanites as representative of the height of ecclesiastical sophistication.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Jeremy Summerly and the St Luke's of Chelsea Choir return to Gresham College to deliver a history of the Christmas Carol: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro
At the end of the Georgian era, a revivalist collection of Christmas music was published by the MP for Bodmin and another by a Cornish solicitor. Half a century later, a Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols was celebrated on Christmas Eve 1880 in the cathedral at Truro.
This lecture, with live musical illustrations, shows how the rustic English carol was preserved in the villages of the West Country and later served back to Cornish urbanites as representative of the height of ecclesiastical sophistication.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-19th-century-taming-of-the-christmas-carol-from-st-erth-to-truro
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege 

Support the show

Professor Joseph Silk explains what the relics of the earliest universe can tell us about our past and our future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology

The history of our galaxy will be addressed by a local approach that is in essence the search for fossils. To probe back in time, one can look in our vicinity for the oldest stars. This motivates exploration of the field of galactic archaeology where one effectively digs into the past. Stars that formed long before our Sun are different; they are deprived of most heavy elements. Their orbits and their chemical signatures trace the evolution of the galaxy. We will learn how our galaxy formed by the assembly of diverse fragments of star-forming clouds.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Prisons and why we use them by a leading criminal lawyer and judge: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prison-and-why-we-send-people-there-does-it-work-should-it

'They deserve to be put away'; 'Appeal the sentence - too short'; 'They should lock him up and throw away the key'. How civilised has it ever been to imprison other humans - or to want to do it? How many prisoners had their fates determined by circumstance, how many by truly free will? How often has increasing prison building been used to increase a politician's vote? How impossible would it be for most politicians to argue for fewer prisons because they do not work, when as a society we have to assume they do?
Modern experience in diverse countries - from Norway to the USA - may suggest that money can be better spent than on keys, bars and walls.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/prison-and-why-we-send-people-there-does-it-work-should-it
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

Professor Joseph Silk explains what the relics of the earliest universe can tell us about our past and our future: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
The history of our galaxy will be addressed by a local approach that is in essence the search for fossils. To probe back in time, one can look in our vicinity for the oldest stars. This motivates exploration of the field of galactic archaeology where one effectively digs into the past. Stars that formed long before our Sun are different; they are deprived of most heavy elements. Their orbits and their chemical signatures trace the evolution of the galaxy. We will learn how our galaxy formed by the assembly of diverse fragments of star-forming clouds.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/galactic-archaeology
Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 1,800 lectures free to access or download from the website.
Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Support the show