The Acoustic World of Early Modern England - Attending to the O-Factor

We know how a Shakespeare play sounds when performed today, but what would listeners have heard within the wooden "O" of the Globe Theater in 1599? What sounds would have filled the air in early modern England, and what would these sounds have meant to people in that largely oral culture?
In this ear-opening journey into the sound-worlds of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Bruce R. Smith explores both the physical aspects of human speech (ears, lungs, tongue) and the surrounding environment (buildings, landscape, climate), as well as social and political structures. Drawing on a staggeringly wide range of evidence, he crafts a historical phenomenology of sound, from reconstructions of the "soundscapes" of city, country, and court to detailed accounts of the acoustic properties of the Globe and Blackfriars theaters and how scripts designed for the two spaces exploited sound very differently.
Critical for anyone who wants to understand the world of early modern England, Smith's pathbreaking "ecology" of voice and listening also has much to offer musicologists and acoustic ecologists.

About the author

Bruce R. Smith is the College Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California and the author of, most recently, Shakespeare and Masculinity and The Acoustic World of Early Modern England, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.

Summary

In this journey into the sound-worlds of Shakespeare's contemporaries, the text explores the physical aspects of human speech (ears, lungs, tongue) and the surrounding environment (buildings, landscape, climate), as well as social and political structures.

Product details

• Authors: B R Smith, B. R. Smith, B.R. Smith, Bruce R Smith, Bruce R. Smith, Bruce R. (University of Southern California Smith, Smith Bruce R.
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.04.1999
• EAN: 9780226763774
• ISBN: 978-0-226-76377-4
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 17 mm x 22 mm x 2 mm
• Weight: 595 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; England, English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / General, Theatre Studies, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean