National Phonography: Field Recording, Sound Archiving, and Producing the Nation in Music

by Tom Western and Matt Brennan

Nationalism is back at the top of the political agenda across Europe, in America, and throughout other regions of the world. Music is embroiled in these developments, and the resurgence of nationalism has run in parallel with an explosion of interest in historical field recordings of traditional musics. Interpreted as truthful transmissions of national pasts, these field recordings tend to be understood as existing outside of mass culture and mass...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1501338897
• ISBN13: 9781501338892
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Length: 208 Pages