The Listening Experience Database (LED) project is a collaboration between the Open University and the Royal College of Music. It has been awarded a £0.75m grant over three years from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The main purpose of the project is to collate people’s experiences of listening to music. It will also be used to shed light on a wide range of issues, including musical performance and reception, particularly in relation to the RCM's expertise in Western musical traditions.
The project will focus on the building of a large database of personal listening experiences, relating to any culture and repertoire up to the present. It will look at sources such as diaries, memoirs, letters and oral history, including the Lionel Bradley papers. Held in the RCM collections, these handwritten reports, written by a librarian at the London Library, provide an invaluable insight into the musical life of London during the War.
