Dr Ingrid Sykes (History, La Trobe University) examines the major contribution played by blind musicians to French eighteenth-century culture and examine the ways in which they negotiated the dramatic political and social changes that occurred between 1750 and 1830. Sonic regeneration was considered pivotal to French society both before and after the Terror of Revolution. Blind musicians exploited their abilities in the sonic sensory arts by brilliantly adapting their musical styles to late eighteenth-century codes of communication and human rights. This enabled them not only to ensure their important position within a regenerated modern French society but also to lead the way in establishing new creative modes of musical expression within the new citizen-state.

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