Abstract
Over the past 25 years, following the auditory turn in the humanities and social sciences, listening as an act and source of agency has been reconceived. It is no longer understood in the passive sense of the term ‘reception’, but instead is considered to be an active cultural process. The essays in this volume extend this rethinking, though in doing so they presume in greater or lesser degree a considerable knowledge on the part of the reader of relevant philosophical and musicological theory, along with existing experience of the wide-ranging musical and literary sources which are drawn on and discussed throughout the book. All of the contributions are erudite and display extensive scholarly expertise. There are some surprises, as for example with the topic of music as torture, and in most cases the essays challenge tired or fatuous assumptions about what listening involves and how it connects with other perceptual and cognitive faculties. The book as a whole is an interesting assortment of parts. Quite how it all stacks up in terms of its own overall identity and collective purpose is difficult to assess, and more significantly, how it will help to shape and further define the field of sonic studies remains as yet unclear.