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SUMMARY:Sounding marginality and social disorder: the battle for Madrid’
 s soundscape\, 1850-1930 - Dr Samuel Llano (University of Durham)
DTSTART:20141022T160000Z
DTEND:20141022T170000Z
UID:TALK55463@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39522
DESCRIPTION:Abstract:\nFrom the 1850s to the 1930s\, when Madrid experienc
 ed its greatest urban expansion\, its soundscape could be described as a k
 aleidoscope of sounds and musical practices. During that period\, the soci
 al inequalities generated by a rapid but uneven process of economic and cu
 ltural modernisation led to a battle for the urban soundscape. Madrid’s 
 soundscape thus became an arena where the tensions between competing lifes
 tyles and class interests\, and where the struggle for survival\, could be
  enacted\; and where a series of issues that were central to the process o
 f modernisation\, such as the administration of social aid\, the tackling 
 of crime and the improvement of hygiene\, could be negotiated.\nThe rising
  middle classes sought to improve their comfort and extend an ‘aural hyg
 iene’ across the city\, coinciding with the implementation of the expans
 ion plan known as ensanche. They tried to close noisy taverns by co-opting
  criminologists\, hygienists and journalists to use their influence to con
 demn flamenco and gypsies publicly. Furthermore\, the middle classes sough
 t to wipe organ grinders and buskers out of the streets of Madrid by launc
 hing a criminalising campaign and prompting the legal and police persecuti
 on of those musicians. By contrast\, the middle classes endorsed the town-
 hall-sponsored workhouse bands\, which could serve as propaganda for the m
 unicipal programmes of social aid. These bands showcased former street urc
 hins neatly uniformed as they marched and played together.\nThe canon of m
 usical practices that emerged after decades of police persecution and jour
 nalistic propaganda against flamenco and street musicians was ultimately p
 redicated on the values associated with different musical styles and pract
 ices. The defence of the work ethic and the rising culture of comfort beca
 me the two most pressing concerns. Ownership of Madrid's soundscape thus h
 inged on the power to determine what qualified as ‘music’ and what was
  a disturbing ‘noise.’ By the 1920s\, it was clear that that power lay
  at the hands of those who controlled the media and the production of know
 ledge\, and were thus able to shape public perceptions of different sounds
  and musical practices.\n\nBiography:\nSamuel Llano is a musicologist and 
 cultural historian specialising in the study of nineteenth and early-twent
 ieth century Spanish music and in its relationship with other cultures\, e
 specially France. His current project deals with the study of Madrid’s s
 oundscape in the nineteenth century\, looking at how it helped to articula
 te social and political responses to a series of problems derived from soc
 ial inequalities\, such as poverty and crime. This research will be publis
 hed as a sole-authored monograph by Oxford University Press in 2016 with t
 he title Discordant Notes: Marginality and Social Disorder in Madrid\, 185
 0-1930. His publications include Whose Spain?: Negotiating “Spanish Musi
 c” in Paris\, 1908-1929 (OUP\, 2012)\, winner of the Robert M. Stevenson
  Award of the American Musicological Society in 2013. Llano has worked as 
 Research Associate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese\, Universit
 y of Cambridge for the past three years and is now a Lecturer in Hispanic 
 Studies in the Durham University.\n
LOCATION:Recital Room\, Faculty of Music
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