Sonic Identity at the Margins

Sonic Identity at the Margins

Sonic Identity at the Margins convenes the interdisciplinary work of 17 academics, composers, and performers to examine sonic identity from the 19th century to the present. Recognizing the myriad aspects of identity formation, the authors in this volume adopt methodological approaches that range from personal accounts and embodied expression to archival research and hermeneutic interpretation. They examine real and imagined spaces—from video games and monument sites to films and depictions of outer space—by focusing on sonic creation, performance, and reception. Drawing broadly from artistic and performance disciplines, the authors reimagine the roles played by music and sound in constructing notions of identity in a broad array of musical experiences, from anti-slavery songsters to Indigenous tunes and soundscapes, noise and multimedia to popular music and symphonic works. Exploring relationships between sound and various markers of identity—including race, gender, ability, and nationality—the authors explore challenging, timely topics, including the legacies of slavery, indigeneity, immigration, and colonial expansion. In heeding recent calls to decolonize music studies and confront its hegemonic methods, the authors interrogate privileged perspectives embedded in creating, performing, and listening to sound, as well as the approaches used to analyze these experiences. “Bringing together a diverse range of authors and methodologies, this timely, engaging, and deeply humane volume offers important new perspectives on how cultural identities-particularly the identities of marginalized communities-intersect with the past and present of musical expression. A major contribution not just to music studies, but to the arts and humanities as a whole.” ― William Gibbons, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Musicology, Texas Christian University, USA Joanna K. Love is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Richmond and the Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of the Society for American Music ( JSAM ). She has written extensively on music in advertising and multimedia and her work has appeared in volumes for Oxford University Press and Routledge, and journals including JSAM and Music and Politics . Her 2019 book, Soda Goes Pop: Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Popular Music , was supported by an AAUW fellowship. Jessie Fillerup is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Richmond and author of Magician of Sound: Ravel and the Aesthetics of Illusion (2021). She has written on French music, opera, musical temporality, and magic for publications such as Music & Letters , Cambridge Opera Journal , 19th-Century Music , and Music Theory Online . Her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Denmark.