City Symphonies: Sound and the Composition of Urban Modernity, 1913–1931

By: Daniel P. Schwartz

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis: Cinema scholars categorize city symphony films of the 1920s and early 1930s as a subgenre of the silent film. Defined in visual terms, the city symphony organizes the visible elements of urban experience according to musical principles such as rhythm and counterpoint.In City Symphonies Daniel Schwartz explores the unheard sonic dimensions of these ostensibly silent films. The book turns its ear to the city symphony as an audible phenomenon, one that encompasses a multitude of works beyond the cinema, such as musical compositions, mass spectacles, radio experiments, and even paintings. What these works have in common is their treatment of the city as a medium for sound. The city is neither background nor content; rather, it is the material through which avant-garde works express themselves. In resonating through the city, these multimedia pieces perform experiments that undermine the borders between sight and sound.Applying an interdisciplinary approach, City Symphonies expands our understanding of the genre, breaking out of the confines of the cinema and onto the street.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 232 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780228021438
Related ISBNs:: 9780228021391, 9780228021407, 9780228021421
Publisher:: McGill-Queen's University Press
Date of Addition:: 04/23/24
Copyrighted By:: McGill-Queen’s University Press
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Music
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.