Synopses & Reviews
The Sounds of Stonehenge originated as a workshop of the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC), held at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol, UK in November 2008. The 8 papers contain material pertaining to acoustic physics, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, cognitive psychology, English literature, film studies, history, history of art, media and popular studies, musicology, sociology, and creative composition. Contents: 1) The sounds of Stonehenge: some notes on an acoustic archaeology (Joshua Pollard ); 2) New art - ancient craft: making music for the monuments (John Crewdson and Aaron Watson); 3) Soul music: instruments in an animistic age (Simon Wyatt); 4) Songs of the stones: the acoustics of Stonehenge (Rupert Till); 5) The cultural history of Stonehenge (Ronald Hutton); 6) Megaliths in English art music (Stephen Banfield); 7) Stonehenge and its film music (Guido Heldt); 8) Stonehenge in rock (Timothy Darvill).
Synopsis
This volume takes an unusual angle on Britain's most famous prehistoric monument, sound and music. It is in two halves, the first examining the archaeoacoustics of Stonehenge, and exporing the anthropology of prehistoric music, the second the legacy, reception and appropriation of Stonehenge by modern musicians from the serious (John Ireland) to the ridiculous (Spinal Tap).