Sounds of the Pandemic

Sounds of the Pandemic offers one of the first critical analyses of the changes in sonic environments, artistic practice, and listening behaviour caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.

This multifaceted collection provides a detailed picture of a wide array of phenomena related to sound and music, including soundscapes, music production, music performance, and mediatisation processes in the context of COVID-19. It represents a first step to understanding how the pandemic and its by-products affected sound domains in terms of experiences and practices, representations, collective imaginaries, and socio-political manipulations.

This book is essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners working in the realms of music production and performance, musicology and ethnomusicology, sound studies, and media and cultural studies.

Maurizio Agamennone is Full Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Florence. His interests span theoretical issues in ethnomusicology; poetic improvisation and other forms of sung poetry; living polyphonies; the activities and productions of migrant musicians; the compositional and performance practices in the European musical avant-garde; and intercultural exchanges in contemporary music.

Daniele Palma is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Bologna, working on evidence of Giuseppe Verdi’s operas performance practice in 19th century music periodicals. His research concerns operatic vocality in the 19th and 20th centuries, early sound media, cultural imaginaries of opera, and amateur music practices, from children’s records to mental patients.

Giulia Sarno is a post-doctoral research fellow in Ethnomusicology at the University of Florence. Her current interests span a variety of topics in contemporary musical and sonic practices, from avant-garde electronics, to oral traditions, and popular music. She is investigating the relationship between sound and football, and the history of the centre for music research Tempo Reale (Florence).