In the 1930s, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences implemented a technical standard—known as Academy Mono, or the Academy Curve—that dramatically impaired the sound quality of motion pictures. This article accounts for why the major studios agreed to this restrictive standard. I argue that they adopted Academy Mono to curtail the pow…[Read more]

After the period of splendour experienced by the musical chapel of the Collegiate Church of Santa María la Mayor in Talavera de la Reina during the 18th century, we witnessed a period of decline, which was part of the crisis experienced by Spanish religious music during the 19th century. The effects of the War of Independence, the successive…[Read more]

This article focuses on the personal and artistic career of one of the most representative composers of Spain in the second half of the 18th century and the first third of the 19th century. Ramón Garay, born in 1761 in Asturias, held the post of Chapel Master of Jaén Cathedral for 36 fruitful years, which saw the birth of an extraordinary p…[Read more]

This contribution focuses on strategies to bridge what in anthropology is called ontological incommensurability: Indigenous worlds often seem inaccessible to modern thought. Instead of trying to open Indigenous worlds to Westerners, I rather intend to make Western worlds accessible to Indigenous thought; and likewise, academic disciplines…[Read more]

The celebration of the “Beethoven Year” in Madrid in 1927 resulted in a whole series of celebrations of all kinds that extended throughout that emblematic year to honour the German composer. This resulted in the public performance of numerous concerts by Madrid’s leading orchestral and choral groups, including the Orquesta Filarmónica de Madrid,…[Read more]

This article focuses on the study of the different musical periods that make up the Modern Age in Europe, taking into account from a critical point of view the current state of the art in bibliography. Each period is previously defined according to the chronological problem and according to its technical, aesthetic and stylistic characteristics.

Article about the biography and musical output of the Italian composer Doomenico Scarlatti

The importance of this publication lies in the recovery and study of a musical heritage of extraordinary quality: unpublished musical works by the masters of the Royal Chapel of Madrid, the most important centre in Spain at the time, which until now had slept the sleep of oblivion. In addition to the musical transcriptions, this contribution is…[Read more]

Dictionary articles in Lexicon about women musicians

Because of its material characteristics, the sonic poses a challenge to the influential paradigm of religion as mediation. This article makes a case for a neo-phenomenological analytic of atmospheres in order to do justice to the sonic in anthropological approaches to religion. Approaching the sonic as atmospheric half-things, I propose a…[Read more]

Study about the construction of organs in North Spain by Cavaillé-Coll (19th century)

Abstract submitted to Timbre 2023 conference. This abstract describes a new approach to understanding consonance and dissonance.

This chapter examines the revolutin in media within music based on Friedrich Kittler’s work. It highlights Kittler’s musical preferences, from Richard Wagner to Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. For Kittler this music exemplified an “other music” that was based on a cutout from the totality of “worldwide noise” as it was theorized after Arthur Schopen…[Read more]

The age-old search for an understanding of “consonance” has been hobbled from the beginning by the expectation that a silver bullet can be found. In this section from a book-in-progress, the historical searches are analyzed for their failings and a new approach is suggested based on observing the effects of tonal sounds within the context of…[Read more]

This note outlines several features common to the reception of ancient ruins by the Christian populations of three countries, each located on a different continent. Most of the sites were and are strongly associated with the realm of the dead. Fear of misadventure or calamity typically inspired a respectful avoidance of such pre-Christian sites…[Read more]

In this paper, presented at the 2022 H-Net Teaching Conference, I describe how I teach undergraduate students about disability in music through what I call disclosure-oriented pedagogy. This practice involves demonstrating cross-historical comparisons between my lived experiences of disability and the representations of disability in 19th-century…[Read more]

This article shows that James Joyce drew inspiration from the Philadelphia Inquirer for the period 1903-1904, particularly when writing the Aeolus episode of Ulysses. The 11 Jan 1903 Sunday edition of this newspaper is shown to have inspired the “crossed keys” of Leopold Bloom in the Aeolus episode, while leading Joyce to connect Shakespeare’s “…[Read more]

In Mumbai the sonic dimensions of place‐making and religious life are deeply connected to the right to the city. For Twelver Shi‘i Muslims, who are marginal to both the city and the nation, public religious rituals and processions have long played very important roles in staging claims to the city. Investigating the sonic aspects of urban pla…[Read more]

The historiola of an ancient Egyptian spell (AEMT 90) describes how Isis becomes a fugitive to protect her unborn/young son Horus from Seth, the murderer of her brother/husband Osiris. As her travel-group seeks refuge in the Nile Delta, a noblewoman’s inhospitality to the unexpected visitors results in her young son being stung by Isis’s sco…[Read more]

Pirate radio still flourishes in dense, multiethnic cities such as Brooklyn, New York, despite the rise of Web radio. For immigrants in particular, radio sounds mark identity and community and (re)claim social spaces of work, commutes, and the home. It is not only lack of access to digital technologies or broadband that shapes radio’s relevance, b…[Read more]