Resounding the landscape: the sonic impress of and the story of Eyam, plague village

Abstract

This paper addresses how we might access, understand and analyse the sounds of a landscape that are lost to history; unless captured or recorded in some way, the sounds of a landscape disappear as they appear. This paper argues that we can re-enliven such momentary sonics through the practice of resounding. Herein sonic acts are performed, as the landscape is encountered, which attempt to collapse the time between the now and the past in order to conjure imaginative and affective connections to a landscape’s historical freight. The plague village of Eyam in Derbyshire, UK, is practised in this manner and the affective-imaginative rendering of its landscape of loss and heroism is documented. Through a sonic attunement to the village and its environs, the paper argues that resounding offers productive ways of thinking, sensing and listening to a landscape’s past and present.

Keywords:

• Sound
• soundscapes
• landscape
• resounding
• affect
• history
• Eyam
• Peak District

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Tim Edensor for the support and guidance in the preparation of this paper. I also would like to thank my wife, Louise Holloway, for once again acting as an excellent informal research assistant during the fieldwork for this paper.

Notes

1. The full playlist of field recordings can be listened to here: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

2. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvEg9pBLmUc. Last accessed 30th March 2016.

3. Museum field recording: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/1-museum?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

4. Outside Eyam Museum: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/2-outside-eyam-museum?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

5. All quotes in italics are from my field-notes and were spoken by either my partner or myself.

6. Lydgate Graves: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/3-lydgate-graves?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

7. Creaky Gate: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/4-creaky-gate-eyam?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

8. Boundary Stone Resounding: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/5a-boundary-stone-resounding-2?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes Boundary Stone Resounding 2: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/5a-boundary-stone-resounding-2?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

9. Boundary Bird: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/6-boundary-bird?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

10. Digging: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/7-digging?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

11. Riley Graves Reading: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/8-riley-graves-reading?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

12. Mompesson’s Well: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/9-mompessons-well?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

13. Church of St Lawrence and thunder: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/13-church-of-st-lawrence-5pm-and-thunder?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

14. Inside Church of St. Lawrence: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/11-inside-church-of-st-lawrence?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

15. Sunday Church Bells: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/14-sunday-church-bells?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes Sunday Church Bells 2: https://soundcloud.com/julian-holloway-215427389/15-sunday-church-bells-2?in=julian-holloway-215427389/sets/eyam-soundscapes

16. See http://citiesandmemory.com/Last accessed 30th March 2016.