To be loved ...by a single-minded, abusive male.

• The English Renaissance Lute Songs (1597-1622) are a highly esteemed part of the cultural heritage of Early Modern Europe and some of them are still performed today, as Johns Dowland’s Flow my tears printed in 1600. More than half of the 700 published songs are love-songs. These include the sub-genre “The Comic Rape”, where the woman is supposed to enjoy sexual violence. Although these particular songs are among the least popular today, their ideas permeate a great deal of English Renaissance culture. This presentation shows how the music enters the mind through the bodily senses and how the physical practice of singing affects both the singer and the listener. The experienced 17th century composer knew how to work his material as to make the most out of a bawdy verse. Thus a song consisting of only five notes with a meter reminding of a lullaby, dedicated to the fifteen year old prince Henry, turns out to be the most violent song in the whole repertoire. The physical act of singing is an amalgam of simultaneous sensations and emotions. The mere physical effort of pronunciation arouses emotional memories embedded in the body. The “materiality”, to quote Karen Barad (Barad 2003, p 802), of the songs themselves affect the body, and the body affects the repertoire.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

love songs

lute songs

the English renaissance

the comic rape

Robert Jones

singing

sexual violence

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)