Coming to grips with modernity: Lisbon’s Soundscape from 1864 to 1908

The intense changes that transformed Lisbon’s urban fabric between 1864 and 1908 were a key agent in reshaping the political economy of sound in the city. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Lisbon was getting to grips with modernity in a period when not only was the term ‘modern’ starting to be seen in a positive light. Furthermore, changes in the entertainment market and the replacement of some elements of urban everyday life that were perceived as representatives of an earlier ‘Romantic’ Lisbon (such as pleasure gardens and theatres) with spaces that echoed transnational articulations of modernity (such as wide boulevards) were essential to the sociability networks. Moreover, these developments played a key role in the new forms of entertainment available, and the repertoires produced for this market were rapidly integrated in the city’s soundscape, from the stage to the streets and to domestic spaces. In this sense, urban change is deeply associated with the new sounds that permeated the capital and with a dynamic relationship between the sonic materials and the spaces they crossed.