TOM WHEATLEY looks at how urbanisation is reflected upon in music. With the urbanisation and gentrification of existing cities and large towns everywhere, and with prestigious music establishments such as the Royal Academy of Music in London or the Berklee College of Music in Boston being centred in these areas, more musicians are finding themselves drawn to urban places, creating bustling musical hubs filled to the brim with creators. The urbanisation of music manifests itself in different ways for each artist, with some artists taking direct inspiration from the visual stimuli, experiences, and sounds their landscape brings, while other artists display the effects of urbanisation in society in more abstract ways. The clearest way we can hear urbanisation’s effect on music is in those pieces written directly about our changing landscape in a literal, tangible sense. These are often from contrasting viewpoints. For example, while composers such as Haydn denote…Continue Reading