THE SOUNDS OF MODERNITY: EXPLORING THE BALKAN CAPITALS’ SOUNDSCAPE (LATE 19th – EARLY 20th C.)
THE SOUNDS OF MODERNITY: EXPLORING THE BALKAN CAPITALS’ SOUNDSCAPE (LATE 19th – EARLY 20th C.)

Summary/Abstract: Despite the fact that urban modernity and modernization in the Balkans has been a celebrated topic among social and cultural historians and historians of architecture and urban planning, the dimension of sound has been almost entirely absent from these discussions. The present paper is based on fresh research aiming to fill this gap. It initiates a comparative inquiry about the sonic environment of three Balkan capital cities (Belgrade, Sofia and Athens) during their transition to the industrial era. It offers a panorama of testimonies on the various dimensions, factors and actors creating and transforming the fin-de-siècle Balkan capitals’ soundscape (the role of climate and built environment, the natural and biological keynote sounds, the sounds of street vendors and musicians and the mechanical sounds of trams and motorcars). It finally demonstrates, through the example of the noisiest of the three cities, i.e. Athens, the importance of the “soundscape” as a field of signification and socio-cultural conflict in a transitional period for the Balkan city.

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