ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the significance of the combination of hearing and sight in the historical experience of imperial pageantry, in India and in London. It chapter discusses performances and pageants by which empire was represented both in Delhi and in London. These ephemeral, though profoundly influential, events have left historical traces through programs and descriptions, surviving texts, musical scores, and photographs. They spoke, like all forms of organized mass ritual, to the senses of both sight and hearing. The evidential and interpretative challenges involved in writing an experiential history incorporating both hearing and sight, a history of sensory affect and response, are considerable. The cultural promotion of the British Empire was prosecuted through a range of practices, from ceremonial to theater and music hall.
