Book excerpt: Berlin, Chicago, Kolkata - three modern cities, whose soundscapes are as different as they are similar. Historically and musically, all three cities bear witness to changing worlds, above all the diversity and multiculturalism that led to the rapid growth of urban centers from the Enlightenment to the present. It is this sound world of musical difference, which modernity subjected to auditory transformation, that is the subject of Sounding Cities. The chapters in this book draw the reader to the life of the city itself, to its streets and stages, transforming how we listen to the modern world. Philip V. Bohlman is Ludwig Rosenberger Distinguished Service Professor in Jewish History in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, and Honorary Professor at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover. Sebastian Klotz is Professor of Transcultural Musicology and Historical Anthropology of Music at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Lars-Christian Koch is Head of the Department of Ethnomusicology and the Berlin Phonogram Archive at the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, Professor for Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne, and HonoraryProfessor for Ethnomusicology at the University of the Arts in Berlin.