Sounds of Modern History

Daniel Morat is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the History Department of the Free University Berlin. He currently holds a Dilthey Fellowship from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and since 2012 has directed the international research network “Auditory Knowledge in Transition: An Epistemic History of Listening in Modernity.” His publications include Von der Tat zur Gelassenheit. Konservatives Denken bei Martin Heidegger, Ernst Jünger und Friedrich Georg Jünger 1920-1960 (Göttingen 2007).

“The decentring of music from the privileged site at which questions about listening are asked makes room for broader questions about the relationship between sound and culture. By thinking about sonic practices as a means of answering larger historical and cultural questions the volume challenges the narrower theoretical approaches to sound often taken in the field of sound studies.” · Contemporary European History“…this highly readable and well-sequenced text synthesises key research on the history of sound, bringing the work of the burgeoning field’s seminal figures into dialogue with that of emerging scholars of the history of European sound cultures.” · Melbourne Historical Journal“As a whole, this collection provides a fine introduction to Sound Studies for historians of modern Europe and, at the same time, contributes new material to the growing body of work in this field. The collective work on World War I is perhaps the most original and compelling, but there is excellent scholarship throughout.” · German History“…presents an excellent contribution to the social studies of sound...In contrast to the more common ocular-centricity of the history of the senses, this book explores the social dimensions of sound as an independent and new area of research." · Sounds of Modern History“…represents a significant contribution to the ongoing process of defining the comparatively young field of 'Sound History'. As the editor notes in his introduction, the field is still characterized by a multitude of different perspectives, and a corresponding range of approaches such that even a stable set of terminologies have yet to be settled upon… This book does an excellent job of show-casing the variety of possibilities and potentials present in the field, and is to be thoroughly recommended on those grounds alone.” · Sehepunkte“Sound has to be recognized as another, co-modifying factor of the multi-sensory world. Thanks to the publisher, the editor, and all the contributors to Sounds of Modern History, sound now receives this long-missed recognition. I have to congratulate everyone involved in this project, as it opens up new perspectives and adds great depth and variety to contemporary soundscape studies.” · CritCom. Journal of Reviews & Critical Commentar“This is a timely intervention in sound studies, one of the most innovative fields to have emerged in the past 10 years. It brings together work by some established figures in the field (e.g. Mark Smith), but also essays by emerging scholars… One of the key aspects of the collection is the focus on aurality as part of a wider history of modernity.” · Veit Erlmann, University of Texas at Austin“Sounds of Modern History offers a strong collection of essays, by younger as well as established scholars, bringing the vanguard of European sound studies scholarship in direct dialogue with… scholarship focused on North America.” · Art Blake, Ryerson University

• List of FiguresIntroductionDaniel MoratPart I: Sound History in PerspectiveChapter 1. Futures of Hearing PastsMark M. SmithPart II: Literature, Science, and Sound Technologies in the 19th CenturyChapter 2. English Beat: The Stethoscopic Era’s Sonic TracesJohn M. PickerChapter 3. The Human Telephone: Physiology, Neurology, and Sound TechnologiesAnthony EnnsPart III: Sound Objects as Artifacts of AttractionChapter 4. Listening to the Horn: On the Cultural History of the Phonograph and the GramophoneStefan GaußChapter 5. Phones, Horns, and “Audio Hoods” as Media of Attraction: Early Sound Histories in Vienna between 1883 and 1933Christine EhardtPart IV: Music Listening in the Laboratory and in the Concert HallChapter 6. From the Piano Pestilence to the Phonograph Solo: Four Case Studies of Musical Expertise in the Laboratory and on the City StreetAlexandra E. HuiChapter 7. The Invention of Silence: Audience Behavior in Berlin and London in the Nineteenth CenturySven Oliver MüllerPart V: The Sounds of World War IChapter 8. Cheers, Songs, and Marching Sounds: Acoustic Mobilization and Collective Affects at the Beginning of World War IDaniel MoratChapter 9. Listening on the Home Front: Music and the Production of Social Meaning in German Concert Hallsduring World War IHansjakob ZiemerPart VI: Auditory Cultures in the Interwar PeriodChapter 10. In Storms of Steel: The Soundscape of World War I and its Impact on Auditory Media Culture During the Weimar PeriodAxel VolmarChapter 11. Sound Aesthetics and the Global Imagination in German Media Culture around 1930Carolyn BirdsallChapter 12. Neurasthenia, Civilization and the Sounds of Modern Life: Narratives of Nervous Illness in the Interwar Campaign against NoiseJames MansellPart VII: The Sounds of World War IIChapter 13. The Silence of Amsterdam before and during World War II: Ecology, Semiotics and Politics of Urban SoundAnnelies JacobsNotes on ContributorsIndex