Listening to China : sound and the Sino-Western encounter, 1770-1839 / Thomas Irvine.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : Process and perspective -- China and the enlightened ear -- Soundscapes in the contact zone : Listening in Canton, 1770-1839 -- Charles Burney discovers China -- Sound and the Macartney Mission, 1792-1794 -- Reading Burney listening to China -- Listening to China with Forkel and Marx -- Epilogue : sound and the Sino-Western encounter.

From bell ringing to fireworks, gongs to cannon salutes, a dazzling variety of sounds and soundscapes marked the China encountered by the West around 1800. These sounds were gathered by diplomats, trade officials, missionaries, and other travelers and transmitted back to Europe, where they were reconstructed in the imaginations of writers, philosophers, and music historians such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, and Charles Burney. Thomas Irvine gathers these stories in Listening to China, exploring how the sonic encounter with China shaped perceptions of Europe’s own musical development. Through these stories, Irvine not only investigates how the Sino-Western encounter sounded, but also traces the West’s shifting response to China. As the trading relationships between China and the West broke down, travelers and music theorists abandoned the vision of shared musical approaches, focusing instead on China’s noisiness and sonic disorder and finding less to like in its music. At the same time, Irvine reconsiders the idea of a specifically Western music history, revealing that it was comparison with China, the great “other,” that helped this idea emerge. Ultimately, Irvine draws attention to the ways Western ears were implicated in the colonial and imperial project in China, as well as to China’s importance to the construction of musical knowledge during and after the European Enlightenment. Timely and original, Listening to China is a must-read for music scholars and historians of China alike.

"Listening to China is our first important foray in the field of global music history, which is rapidly establishing itself as the main area of growth in music studies. Compellingly and expertly written by a seasoned scholar, it tells the story of how Westerners experienced China with their ears at the time of the Sino-Western encounter of ca. 1800, and what this meant for their own construction of musical knowledge. It explores two kinds of Western practices of listening in and to China: ear-witness accounts by travelers to China, including diplomats, trade officials, and missionaries; and writings about Chinese music by European writers, philosophers, and music historians who constructed China's sound in their imaginations. The book's primary objective is a better understanding of how Westerners gained/gathered sonic knowledge of China and to investigate the aural dimensions of the Sino-Western encounter At the same time, the book reconsiders the idea of a specifically Western music history by showing how it was precisely the comparison with a great "other"--China--that helped the idea itself to emerge. Ultimately, the book draws attention to the importance of China for the construction of (musical) knowledge during and following the European Enlightenment."-- Provided by publisher.

Local access dig.pdf. [Irvine-Listening to China.pdf]