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Early Modern Parisian Soundscapes

 

Welcome to our website designed to exhibit the research undertaken under the direction of Professor Nicholas Hammond.

The website was officially launched on 13th April 2015, and the immediate response was very positive and worldwide. Here are just a few of the messages received: "This is a real boon to musicologists and interdisciplinarians, and indeed anyone with an interest in the period." "This looks absolutely fascinating." "Quel projet de recherche infini et génial!" "So exciting!" "It sounds wonderful" "Looks fantastic" "Your project on soundscapes is wonderful". "C'est passionnant!" We hope that you will stay in touch and continue to visit the site, as texts and music will be added on a very regular basis. Already the site is being used productively by researchers. Claude Bourqui, co-editor of the Pléiade edition of Molière's complete works, has made use of it for his site: http://moliere.paris-sorbonne.fr/base.php?Trembler_pour_ce_qu%27il_aime

For a short article on one of our concerts, visit the Paris-based website parisupdate.com: http://paris-update.com/fr/music/flash-news-music/22644-parisian-soundsc....

Discover the stories behind the songs in the Section "Songs and their Stories", which was created in December 2018.

Listen to the recordings of Badinage under the performance section of "Chansonnier Maurepas". In November 2015, three new songs relating to the death of Louis XIV in 1715 were added. New volumes continue to be transcribed and put on the site. You can view two short films made of Badinage in the Video section.

The latest volume to be added is volume 7 (added in July 2022):

volume 7

https://www.chateauversailles-recherche.fr/francais/ressources-documentaires/corpus-electroniques/sources-manuscrites/chansonniers-de-clairambault-et-maurepas/chansonnier-de-maurepas.html

 

We are delighted that the singer on our project, mezzo-soprano Katie Bray, won the Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2019. Listen to her on this website: Performances

 

We are also pleased to announce that Nicholas Hammond's book, The Powers of Sound and Song in Early Modern Paris (Penn State University Press, 2019) is available as a hardback, paperback and e-book.

https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08471-8.html

The book and the website have received many favourable reviews, most recently in the prestigious journal Renaissance Quarterly, and in French History by leading historian Mark Greengrass. A special issue of H-France Forum was devoted to the book, comprising four article-length reviews by leading scholars and a response article by Nicholas Hammond. See also reviews by Paul Scott and John Romey.

A new article by Nicholas Hammond about this website appeared in January 2024 in the journal Storia Urbana. The special issue is entitled Mapping Early Modern European Cities. Digital Projects of Public History",173, Franco Angeli editore, 2022, and the article can be found on pp. 47-59.