Overview

London, 1820. The British capital is a metropolis that overwhelms dwellers and visitors alike with constant exposure to all kinds of sensory stimulation. Over the next two decades, the city’s tumult will reach new heights: as population expansion places different classes in dangerous proximity and ideas of political and social reform linger in the air, London begins to undergo enormous infrastructure change that will alter it forever. It is the London of this period that editors Roger Parker and Susan Rutherford pinpoint in this book, which chooses one broad musical category—voice—and engages with it through essays on music of the streets, theaters, opera houses, and concert halls; on the raising of voices in religious and sociopolitical contexts; and on the perception of voice in literary works and scientific experiments with acoustics. Emphasizing human subjects, this focus on voice allows the authors to explore the multifaceted issues that shaped London, from the anxiety surrounding the city’s importance in the musical world at large to the changing vocal imaginations that permeated the epoch. Capturing the breadth of sonic stimulations and cultures available—and sometimes unavoidable—to residents at the time, London Voices, 1820–1840 sheds new light on music in Britain and the richness of London culture during this period.  

Full Product Details

9780226670188

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Hah!' Finally, a book that makes sense of the city of London through its manifold voices. The cast of characters is motley--from ballad singers to prima donnas--and the repertoire a cosmopolitan mix. Through voices musical, political, metaphorical, anatomical, and mechanical, these essays not only amplify our understanding of nineteenth-century London, they show why voice mattered then as much as it does now. --Laura Tunbridge, University of Oxford The volume in your hands begins as a riotously evocative guide to a resonant aural world and ends as the most intelligent meditation I know on the historical consolidation of voice as an index of modern political life. There is no more convincing account of the moral and commercial importance of voice. Moving deftly from ballad singers to celebrity divos, from improvising singer-actresses to silver-fork novelists, from singing-class movements to castrati, from 'organ boys' to reform-minded music critics, this impressive collection makes the case for voice, showing why its use, representation, and regulation became so definitive of London's metropolitan order. The sheer proliferation of discourse--the range of voices heard and unheard--turns out to be the point. Read on! --James Q. Davies, University of California, Berkeley This innovative and important collection of essays tracks the politics of the musical 'voice' as it travels across classes, spaces, and boundaries in early nineteenth-century London. London Voices, 1820-1840 attends to the sounds of song that rose above the clatter and noise of the fastest-growing city in the world. Usefully disturbing the boundaries between elite and popular, this book argues for the power of the idea of 'voice' for diverse interest groups and initiatives at a time of political and social upheaval. London Voices, 1820-1840 offers a whole new way of hearing the period. --Clare Pettitt, King's College London

Author Information

Roger Parker is the Thurston Dart Professor of Music at King's College London. He is the editor of Nabucodonosor, a volume in the University of Chicago Press's critical edition of the works of Giuseppe Verdi and is co-general editor (with Gabriele Dotto) of the Casa Ricordi critical edition of the works of Donizetti.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available