The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933A vibrant history of acoustical technology and aural culture in early-twentieth-century America. In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology. They listened as newly critical consumers of aural commodities. By examining the technologies that produced this sound, as well as the culture that enthusiastically consumed it, Thompson recovers a lost dimension of the Machine Age and deepens our understanding of the experience of change that characterized the era. Reverberation equations, sound meters, microphones, and acoustical tiles were deployed in places as varied as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's office skyscrapers, and the soundstages of Hollywood. The control provided by these technologies, however, was applied in ways that denied the particularity of place, and the diverse spaces of modern America began to sound alike as a universal new sound predominated. Although this sound—clear, direct, efficient, and nonreverberant—had little to say about the physical spaces in which it was produced, it speaks volumes about the culture that created it. By listening to it, Thompson constructs a compelling new account of the experience of modernity in America. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION MODERNITY AND HISTORY | 1 |
THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ACOUSTICS | 13 |
ACOUSTICS AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES | 18 |
WALLACE SABINE AND THE REVERBERATION FORMULA | 33 |
MUSIC AND THE CULTURE OF LISTENING IN TUKNOFTHE CENTURY AMERICA | 45 |
CONCLUSION THE CRITICS SPEAK | 51 |
THE NEW ACOUSTICS 19001933 | 59 |
SABINE AFTER SYMPHONY HALL | 62 |
ACOUSTICAL MATERIALS AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE 19001933 | 169 |
ACOUSTICAL MATERIALS AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY | 173 |
ACOUSTICAL MATERIALS AND MODERN ACOUSTICS THE NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING | 190 |
MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND MODERN ACOUSTICS THE PHILADELPHIA SAVING FUND SOCIETY BUILDING | 207 |
CONCLUSION | 227 |
ELECTROACOUSTICS AND MODERN SOUND 19001933 | 229 |
LISTENING TO LOUDSPEAKERS THE ELECTROACOUSTIC SOUNDSCAPE | 235 |
THE MODERN AUDITORIUM | 248 |
THE REVERBERATIONS OF REVERBERATION | 81 |
NEW TOOLS THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ACOUSTICS | 90 |
THE NEW ACOUSTICIAN | 99 |
CONCLUSION SABINE RESOUNDED | 107 |
NOISE AND MODERN CULTURE 19001933 | 115 |
NOISE ABATEMENT AS ACOUSTICAL REFORM | 120 |
NOISE AND MODERN Music | 130 |
ENGINEERING NOISE ABATEMENT | 144 |
CONCLUSION THE FAILURE OF NOISE ABATEMENT | 157 |
Other editions - View all
The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of ... Emily Ann Thompson No preview available - 2002 |
The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of ... Emily Thompson No preview available - 2004 |