Main content

Episode 3

Richard Witts explores the significance of programme notes and how the 成人快手 took on the mission to inform and educate its audience about classical music.

In the early twentieth century a prominent British movement sprang up under the title 'Music Appreciation', with the aims of introducing to 'ordinary' listeners 'great' or 'serious' music, and teaching them 'the art of listening'. Radio became a chief means by which this misson was to be accomplished, while books, adult education courses and regional 'Music Travellers', also contributed to a new educational field. In this series, musicologist and cultural historian Richard Witts of Edge Hill University explains the movement's origins, ambitions and idiosyncrasies, and clarifies why it fell out of favour in the second half of the twentieth century. In this third programme he explores the significance of programme notes, and looks at how the 成人快手 took on the mission to inform and educate its audience about classical music.

Producer: Sara Davies

First broadcast in August 2011.

Available now

15 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Thu 25 Aug 2011 22:45
  • Wed 5 Sep 2012 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast