The ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and Musica Viva Australia recently worked together to offer a series of pre-concert talks to accompany the recent Amarcord Tour of Australia.

The School of History's Dr Merridee Bailey presented the Canberra pre-concert talk at Llewellyn Hall on the 24 July. The talk, on the topic of Love and Marriage in History: Devotion, Lust, Despair and Betrayal, explored the ideas and feelings associated with romantic love and longing in the past to accompany the concert of Renaissance madrigals and folk songs dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

The talk explored the ways in which Renaissance madrigals and folk songs expose the artistic representations of longing, love and desire. We can recognise in this music and lyrics the ideas of love, marriage and devotion that absorb and excite us today. From initial longing, to expressions of devotion, combined with the potential for despair, history is littered with the lives of men and women whose love has been recorded. This pre-concert talk explored the ideas and concepts this music arouses in us by looking at romantic love and marriage in the past.

Dr Merridee Bailey, is an Associate Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions and a lecturer in the ANU School of History. In Semester 2, 2012 she is teaching Researching and Writing History, a course on historical methodology. She has recently lectured on medieval European history at the University of New England. Her research interests include ideas about virtue and courtesy in 15th and 16th century England and more recently the role of women in urban communities in 16th century London.