A programme of medieval fabliaux, Renaissance fragrent vines, operatic extracts, advertising slogans, music hall songs, and contemporary compositions that feature the most overlooked organ and its sensory powers. Alongside new works by Barbara and Jane Alden, we performed nasal excavations by Lord Berners, Judith Bingham, Geoffrey Bush, Lou Gare, Charles Hutchins, Pete Morris, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nicolas Slonimsky, and anonymous. Bharatanatyam and contemporary dancer and scholar Hari Krishnan’s representation of scent will taught us how to inhale anew.

Programme

Margaret Ruthven Lang, ‘The Old Person of Cassel’ (1909)

Nicolas Slonimsky, ‘No More Shiny Nose’, from Five Advertising Songs (1925)

Marie de France, Bisclavret, arranged by Jane Alden (2025)

Facing Scent (in Bharatanatyam gestures) by Hari Krishnanwith Sam Hayden

Judith Bingham, “To sneeze, to emit wind audibly,” no. 4 from Hodge: Dr Johnson’s Cat (2023)

Dmitri Shostakovich (1928), The Nose, excerpts from Act 1, scene 4 and Act 3 scene 7

Escape with Nosy Improvisers by Linn D., Charles Hutchins, Sam Hayden

Barbara Alden, Nosy hypnosis (2024)

Pete Morris, My Mary Has the Longest Nose (1877)

A Ballad of the Nose (printed for John Playford, 1669), arranged by Jane Alden (2025)

Lord Berners, Red Roses and Red Noses (c. 1940)

Edward Lear, ‘The Dong with the Luminous Nose’, arranged by Barbara Alden (2025)

The Hooke journal’s ‘Nose’ catch