This Wednesday, 16 October (1pm) ABC Classic FM will broadcast a concert that was held as a major public outcome for a ground-breaking digital edition of an eighteenth-century songbook funded by the Australian Research Council. The project is led by the Associate Professor Robert Wellington, Director of the Centre for Art history and Art Theory in the School of Art & Design.

The concert presents a selection of some of the songs published in a unique illustrated songbook compiled by the composer and theorist Jean-Benjamin de la Borde. Published in 1773 and dedicated to Marie Antoinette, the Dauphine of France, this extraordinary song book is adorned with beautiful images from some of France’s leading master printmakers.

Funded by the Australian Research Council, this concert belongs to a project that brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Australian National University, the University of Sydney, the Sorbonne and the Voltaire Foundation, working across the disciplines of art history (Christina Clarke, Mark Ledbury and Robert Wellington), musicology (Erin Helyard), French literature (Nicholas Cronk), and digital humanities (Glenn Roe).