Description
Printed Musical Propaganda
in Early Modern England
reveals how consistently music, in theory and practice, was used as propaganda
in a variety of printed genres that included or discussed music from the
English Civil Wars through the reign of William and Mary. These printed items—bawdy
broadside ballads, pamphlets paid for by Parliament, sermons advertising the
Church of England’s love of music, catch-all music collections, music treatises
addressed to monarchs, and masque and opera texts—when connected in a
contextual mosaic, reveal a new picture of not just individual propaganda
pieces, but multi-work propaganda campaigns with contributions that cross
social boundaries. Musicians, Royalists, Parliamentarians, government
officials, propagandists, clergymen, academics, and music printers worked
together setting musical traps to catch the hearts and minds of their audiences
and readers. Printed Musical Propaganda proves that the influential
power of music was not merely an academic matter for the early modern English,
but rather a practical benefit that many sought to exploit for their own gain.