Listening in Paris: A Cultural HistoryBeginning with the simple question, "Why did audiences grow silent?" Listening in Paris gives a spectator's-eye view of opera and concert life from the Old Regime to the Romantic era, describing the transformation in musical experience from social event to profound aesthetic encounter. James H. Johnson recreates the experience of audiences during these rich decades with brio and wit. Woven into the narrative is an analysis of the political, musical, and aesthetic factors that produced more engaged listening. Johnson shows the gradual pacification of audiences from loud and unruly listeners to the attentive public we know today. Drawing from a wide range of sources—novels, memoirs, police files, personal correspondence, newspaper reviews, architectural plans, and the like—Johnson brings the performances to life: the hubbub of eighteenth-century opera, the exuberance of Revolutionary audiences, Napoleon's musical authoritarianism, the bourgeoisie's polite consideration. He singles out the music of Gluck, Haydn, Rossini, and Beethoven as especially important in forging new ways of hearing. This book's theoretical edge will appeal to cultural and intellectual historians in many fields and periods. |
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actors aesthetic Alceste Almanach musical amateurs aria aristocratic Armide artistic audiences Beethoven behavior Berlioz Bibliothèque bourgeois bourgeoisie boxes Castil-Blaze century Charles Rosen composers Conservatoire Correspondance littéraire crà Culture dance dramatic Éditions eighteenth eighteenth-century emotions Essai fêtes française France François François-Joseph Fétis French Opera French Revolution Gluck Grand Opera Grétry hall harmony Haydn Hector Berlioz Ibid images imitation Imprimerie instrumental music Iphigénie en Tauride Jacobin Jean-Philippe Rameau Journal des débats l'Opéra letter Librairie listeners Loge Louis Lully Lully's Méhul Mélidore et Phrosine Mémoires Mongrédien Mozart musical experience musical expression musicians Musique en France Napoleon Nationale Old Regime Opéra orchestra overture Oxford Paganini painting Paris parterre passions performance Pierre political popular premiere prince quoted Rameau reprint revolutionary Revue musicale Rossini Rousseau sentiments siècle singers singing social Société des Concerts society sounds spectators stage Stendhal symphonies taste theater Théâtre Italien tion trans University Press vols wrote York