Music and the Performing Arts in the Anthropocene : Nature, Materialities and Ecological Transformation

Music and the Performing Arts in the Anthropocene offers a series of thought-provoking essays about music and the performing arts viewed from current Anthropocene-aware perspectives. From the use of gas, water and air in 19th-century stage practices to the ecology of musical instruments and sound reproduction technologies, waste and carbon print in experimental music and theatrical production, knowledge of precariousness and empowerment through music in a changing world, each chapter aims at highlighting an issue that has always been here but never looked at thoroughly, due to the divides and hierarchies of the modern cosmogony.

Gathering sixteen scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (history of literature, opera and theatre studies, musicology, sound studies, sociology, information science, etc.), this volume reflects on the relationships between the performing arts, music and environmental issues, explores a number of tools for changes and sketches how we will understand the arts, their history and their future beyond ecocriticism.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the humanities and social sciences, as well as a broader readership involved in art and environment policies.