The Sound of the City

Venice, once so politically and economically powerful, is a city of water and gondolas that is gradually sinking into the sea, a place that plays by its own rules and celebrates both the mind and the body. No stop-off city this, but a terminus where you stay for a while. In fact Venice doesn’t even need to exist in order to enchant. Anyone casually mentioning its name knows the effect it will have on our imaginations: the sound of the word is sufficient to evoke desires and expectations.

At the same time the labyrinth in the lagoon is a living memory of more than five centuries, packed to the rafters with cultural history. Painters, writers and musicians have given the best of themselves in the city of the doges, despite the sometimes predictable decor within which their ventures played themselves out. Walking a fine line between heritage and cliché, this book is intended as a tribute to the artists who have captured the sounds and colours of Venice in their work.

The authors have not laid down a specific route, but their story begins in the city centre. All the threads they have followed through the maze across four centuries come together on Saint Mark’s Square. From there the sound reverberates out across the city, from Monteverdi’s psalms to the verses of Brodsky, from the futurist clamour of the streets to the soundscapes of modernity.