Thomas Irvine

From bell ringing to fireworks, gongs to cannon salutes, a dazzling variety of sounds and soundscapes marked the China encountered by the West around 1800. These sounds were gathered by diplomats, trade officials, missionaries, and other travelers and transmitted back to Europe, where they were reconstructed in the imaginations of writers, philosophers, and music historians such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and Charles Burney. Thomas Irvine gathers these stories in Listening to China, exploring how the sonic encounter with China shaped perceptions of Europe’s own musical development. Through these stories, Irvine not only investigates how the Sino-Western encounter sounded, but also traces the West’s shifting response to China. As the trading relationships between China and the West broke down, travelers and music theorists abandoned the vision of shared musical approaches, focusing instead on China’s noisiness and sonic disorder and finding less to like in its music. At the same time, Irvine reconsiders the idea of a specifically Western music history, revealing that it was comparison with China, the great “other,” that helped this idea emerge. Ultimately, Irvine draws attention to the ways Western ears were implicated in the colonial and imperial project in China, as well as to China’s importance to the construction of musical knowledge during and after the European Enlightenment. Timely and original, Listening to China is a must-read for music scholars and historians of China alike.

Sound and the Sino-Western Encounter, 1770-1839

Listening to China

Neil Gregor

For many centuries, Germany has enjoyed a reputation as the ‘land of music’. But just how was this reputation established and transformed over time, and to what extent was it produced within or outside of Germany? Through case studies that range from Bruckner to the Beatles and from symphonies to dance-club music, this volume looks at how German musicians and their audiences responded to the most significant developments of the twentieth century, including mass media, technological advances, fascism, and war on an unprecedented scale.

Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor

Dreams of Germany

On the planet of Esseth, in the small island nation of Korra, very few people know the truth of the universe. One denizen of Korra, Cio, spends most of his days protecting and coddling seven-year-old Keira Darrenger, the castle-dwelling, golden-haired heiress to D-Corp, the planet’s largest mercenary company and Cio’s employer. Life is simple and pleasant until the day Cio meets a bizarre woman named Bliss, two local celebrities—and the ghastly beast that assaults him on the castle grounds. Struggling with disturbing desires for Keira, as well as threats of death and despair, Cio’s once simple life is thrust into chaos when he is steadily introduced to a world of spirits, supernatural powers and planetary preservation. Soon Keira isn’t the only child in need of protection from evil—or from Cio.

Thomas Irvine

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