Seachanges: Music in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds, 1550-1800

Seachanges is a collection of essays that explore human and cultural mobility through a musical lens, employing various interpretive strategies to complicate national and regional accounts of music from 1550 to 1800. It highlights the experiences of Indigenous musicians in colonial Latin America, the diaspora of Neapolitan singers, fictional cartographies of Baroque opera, and enslaved Black musicians in Venice and pre-revolutionary Haiti. The book promotes a new theoretical vocabulary that emphasizes orality, voice, performers, and performance in mobility studies.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 03 May 2022
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Seachanges is a groundbreaking collection of original essays that explore the intricate connections between human and cultural mobility, with a special focus on the role of music in shaping these movements. Musicians have long been pioneers of migration, and the encounters between different musical traditions have always resulted in the emergence of complex cultural landscapes. However, the task of hearing the musicking that took place in diasporas and foreign lands requires innovative methodologies that center the experiences of unsettled lives and ephemeral practices in history.

The contributors to Seachanges employ a diverse range of interpretive strategies from musicology, ethnomusicology, historical performance practice, sociolinguistics, and cultural history. Their goal is to complicate national and regional accounts of music from 1550 to 1800, challenging the traditional narratives that have dominated the field. The repertorial subjects covered in the book are wide-ranging and include Spanish guitar music in Italy, Italian songs in Bohemia, Turkish songs in France, Jewish rituals on Corfu, Jesuit hymns in the Greek Archipelago, and Ottoman court music. In addition, further chapters delve into the experiences of Indigenous musicians in colonial Latin America, the diaspora of Neapolitan singers, fictional cartographies of Baroque opera, and the careers of enslaved Black musicians in Venice and pre-revolutionary Haiti.

By foregrounding orality, voice, performers, and performance as central concerns in mobility studies, Seachanges offers a new theoretical vocabulary that challenges the dominant paradigms in the field. The book promotes a holistic approach to understanding mobility, recognizing the importance of individual human experiences and the temporal nuances of musical practices. Through its rich and diverse content, Seachanges illustrates how musical microhistories can contribute to the broader macro narrative of Mediterranean and Atlantic Studies, while respecting the tempo of individual human lives and musical timeframes.

Weight: 838g
Dimension: 240 x 172 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674278400