[audiobook] Howard Barker's Art of Theatre: Essays on His Plays; Poetry and Production Work by From Manchester University Press at Arts-Photography

Description

From the strictly regimented church bells to the freewheeling chatter of civic life; Renaissance Florence was a city built not just of stone but of sound as well. An evocative alternative to the dominant visual understanding of urban spaces; The Noisy Renaissance examines the premodern city as an acoustic phenomenon in which citizens used sound to navigate space and society.Analyzing a range of documentary and literary evidence; art and architectural historian Niall Atkinson creates an ldquo;acoustic topographyrdquo; of Florence. The dissemination of official messages; the rhythm of prayer; and the murmur of rumor and gossip combined to form a soundscape that became a foundation in the creation and maintenance of the urban community just as much as the cityrsquo;s physical buildings. Sound in this space triggered a wide variety of social behaviors and spatial relations: hierarchical; personal; communal; political; domestic; sexual; spiritual; and religious.By exploring these rarely studied soundscapes; Atkinson shows Florence to be both an exceptional and an exemplary case study of urban conditions in the early modern period.