Professor Dr. Christoph Heyl: „Almost unsufferable to our Ears? Romanticism and the Perception of the Highland Bagpipes, c. 1760-1830“

Einladung zu einem Vortrag in englischer Sprache

Monday, 13th February 2017 at 7 pm

RüKONTOR (5. Etage), Rüttenscheider Str. 144, 45131 Essen

In the course of the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, changing notions of taste led to a thorough change in reactions to Scottish bagpipe music. A total rejection of this music as barbarous, obscene and politically suspect eventually gave way to an enthusiastic celebration of the instrument and its repertoire. This was prompted by Romanticism, primitivism (the new admiration for people regarded as “noble savages”) and the concept of Gothic horror. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the polite public came to appreciate the wild horrors of a music which had previously been regarded as simply horrible. Now it was construed as the “music of rude passion”, “the music of uproar and misrule”, a sublime music that had an intoxicating effect. In this, the late eighteenth-century appreciation of Highland bagpipe music foreshadowed a late offshoot of Romanticism that is still with us: the familiar aesthetics of sex and drugs and rock’n roll.

This talk will be illustrated with numerous images as well as practical musical demonstrations. Prof Heyl will demonstrate and play several historic types of bagpipes from his collection of musical instruments.


Christoph Heyl is Chair of British Literature and Culture at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Previous stages of his education and career include Goethe-Universität (Frankfurt), the German Historical Institute (London), the School of Advanced Study, UCL (London) and Humboldt-Universität (Berlin). He has worked on a wide range of topics from the early modern period to the present day. His research focuses on the interplay between literature and cultural history (including architecture, the visual arts and music). He is currently working on a one-volume history of English literature. Christoph Heyl is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.


Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Koschany + Zimmer Architekten GmbH
Rükontor, Rüttenscheider Str. 144, 45131 Essen

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Unser Vortragsraum befindet sich in der 5. Etage des RüKONTOR (Aufzug vorhanden), Rüttenscheider Str. 144/Eingang Gregorstraße, gegenüber dem Girardet Haus. Parkmöglichkeiten auf den anliegenden Strassen, auf den Parkplätzen des Girardethauses und am Ende der Gregorstraße vorhanden. U-Bahn Verbindung von Essen- Hbf: Linien U11, U101 und U107, Station Martinstraße (3 Minuten Fußweg). Busse von der Haltestelle Girardet Haus (Linie 142) und von der Haltestelle Martinstraße (Linien 142, 160 und 161).