Publisher's Synopsis
Church bells ring the time, street vendors cry out their wares, ballad-singers push the latest scandal, and music spills from tavern doors--these are the sounds of the City of London in the early seventeenth century. Even the relative silence of the night is broken by the bellman's ringing. Noyses, sounds, and sweet airesexplores the "soundworlds" of early modern England. It leads the reader through streets, into taverns and theatres, to court masques, cathedral services, and individual homes in pursuit of sounds that have long since vanished. Essays by noted scholars explore the noises that echoed through London's streets, the sounds of worlds in collision in an age of political and religious turmoil, and the sweet airs of petty amateurs and seasoned professionals preserved in manuscripts, printed books, images, and musical instruments--the material remains of musical culture.
