Sound Effect

Ross Brown is Dean of School and Professor of Sound at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK, where, in 1994, he started and led the UK’s first degree courses in Theatre Sound Design. He made work in the late 1980s and early 90s that is now seen as representing a ‘sonic turn’ in UK theatre practice. In 2009 he published Sound.

• Acknowledgements Now hear this (a preface) PART ONE Theatrical hearing1 It’s obviously an effect (An introduction) Splat By design 2 Dispositions The god soundAuditory space and its dramaturgy The scenography of sound 3 Auditorium A space in process A fictional ontology PART TWO Reconfigurations4 Present (A theatre about our person) Inscape Personal audio / immersive theatre The hi-ficell 5 A sound from the suburbs (The curious storyof Colonel Gouraud) An electric house A baby cries Anathema maranatha! 6 Picturing the scene The scenic reconfiguration The picturesque of sound The Eidophusikon PART THREE ‘Our thunder is the best’ (Living in the audio world)7 Arty, exotic and gothic Pop, art and the theatre of hearing The theatre we daydream Thunder on the ear 8 Inside out (Symbolism, cinema and The Bells) The soundtrack, its prehistory and audiovisual morphology My God, it’s coming out of your ears! The free ear 9 Audio drama The sound effect in its widest sense (the stuff of radio) The theatre Corwin heard Common sound The Anatomy of Sound, by Norman Corwin 10 Conclusion Audimus: the theatre we hear References Index

Drawing on his rich and long-standing experiences, Brown has written a comprehensive work on sound and hearing… Brown’s exploration of sound and its societal implications is insightful and thought-provoking. The book offers a rich tapestry of historical anecdotes, theoretical reflections, and contemporary analyses, accessible not only to all academics but also to a wider audience of those interested in sound, such as theatre, film, and music practitioners.