RUTGERS BRITISH STUDIES CENTER SEMINAR: "The Early History of the Protest Song: Libels, Ballads and Politics in Seventeenth-Century England"

In the early summer of 1627, three roving fiddlers toured the small towns and villages to the north and west of London playing and singing a suite of scandalous songs that decried the perverse misrule of one of England’s most powerful men: George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.  Denounced to the authorities, the three fiddlers were fined, pilloried and whipped, and paraded shamefully through the streets.  In the eyes of the court, they were seditious libelers, masterless vagabonds who threatened the social order.  

But the three roving fiddlers also belonged to a rich political and musical culture in which songs were powerful vehicles of protest and mobilization. “The Early History of the English Protest Song” explores the political and musical worlds of these unfortunate fiddlers and their numerous brethren—the writers, singers, publishers and musicians who used song as a vehicle of political critique, commentary and allegiance.  Mixing historical and literary analysis with musical performance, this collaborative workshop brings scholars of libelous verse and broadside ballads together with early musicians and singers to recapture the political meanings and the musical sounds of early modern English protest song.

Participants include Alastair Bellany (Rutgers University); Thomas Cogswell (University of California-Riverside) and Angela McShane (Victoria and Albert Museum); with Adam Knight Gilbert (University of Southern California) and members of the USC Thornton School of Music Baroque Sinfonia.

For more information visit http://britishstudies.rutgers.edu