Research Catalog

Title

Singing the news of death : execution ballads in Europe 1500-1900 / Una McIlvenna.

Author

McIlvenna, Una

Publication

• Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2022.
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 533 pages : illustrations, music; 25 cm.

Summary

Across Europe, from the dawn of print until the early twentieth century, the news of crime and criminals' public executions was printed in song form on cheap broadsides and pamphlets to be sold in streets and marketplaces by ballad-singers. Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900 looks at how and why song was employed across Europe for centuries as a vehicle for broadcasting news about crime and executions, exploring how this performative medium could frame and mediate the message of punishment and repentance. Examining ballads in English, French, Dutch, German, and Italian across four centuries, author Una McIlvenna offers the first multilingual and longue durée study of the complex and fascinating phenomenon of popular songs about brutal public death.Ballads were frequently written in the first-person voice, and often purported to be the last words, confession or 'dying speech' of the condemned criminal, yet were ironically on sale the day of the execution itself. Musical notation was generally not required as ballads were set to well-known tunes. Execution ballads were therefore a medium accessible to all, regardless of literacy, social class, age, gender or location. A genre that retained extraordinary continuities in form and content across time, space, and language, the execution ballad grew in popularity in the nineteenth century, and only began to fade as executions themselves were removed from the public eye. With an accompanying database of recordings, Singing the News of Death brings these centuries-old songs of death back to life. -- Publisher description.

Series Statement

The new cultural history of music

Uniform Title

New cultural history of music.

Subject

• Death songs > Europe > History and criticism
• Ballads > Europe > History and criticism
• Music > Social aspects > History. > Europe
• Ballads
• Death songs
• Music > Social aspects
• Europe

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Note

• Author Una McIlvenna brings the execution ballad to life in Singing the News of Death, uncovering the relationship between punishment and music throughout Europe from 1500-1900 with an unprecedented breadth of study and ambition.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [459]-504) and indexes.

Contents

List of Illustrations -- List of Music Examples -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Selling the News of Death -- Part I: Features of Execution Ballads -- 1. The Significance of Contrafactum, or, How Melody Made Meaning -- 2. The Centrality of Shame in the Punishment Ritual -- 3. Fake News? How Execution Ballads Walked the Line between Truth and Fiction -- Part II: Crimes That Feature in Execution Ballads -- 4. The Devil's Business: Religion, Witchcraft, Sorcery, Possession -- 5. How Ballads Portrayed Murder and Violence -- 6. Political Executions in Song -- 7. Outlaw Balladry: Fantasy vs Reality -- 8. The End of Execution Ballads? -- Coda: Songs about the Executioner -- Conclusion: The Centrality of Song to Punishment -- Bibliography -- Index of Songs.

Call Number

JME 22-235

ISBN

• 0197551858
• 9780197551851

OCLC

1276848076

Author

McIlvenna, Una, author.

Title

Singing the news of death : execution ballads in Europe 1500-1900 / Una McIlvenna.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2022.

Copyright Date

©2022

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

The new cultural history of music

New cultural history of music.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages [459]-504) and indexes.

Research Call Number

JME 22-235