The UK's national academy, the Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, was founded upon a number of groups of natural philosophers, led by those of John Wilkins' "Philosophical Club" at Wadham College, Oxford, of which Christopher Wren, Seth Ward, Thomas Willis, Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle were all members. These were the people responsible for making Wadham a European scientific hub during the dozen years of Wilkins’s Wardenship of the College. Ian Walmsley will describe how the view of science as an open intellectual enterprise led to the realization of an independent academy, able to advise governments without being part of them, and able to champion the societal and cultural virtues of the scientific enterprise.

The Wadham College Chapel Choir will sing a number of pieces that complement this history. Music will be selected from the periods of the English Commonwealth, just after the founding of Wadham College and during the time of Christopher Wren; the Restoration, when the Royal Society was founded; the Age of Enlightenment, when music reflected the picture of a rational nature; and the 20th Century, when more radical forms of tonal exploration were being explored.