Description
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 duree 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.
About the Author
Una McIlvenna is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University. A literary and cultural historian of early modern Europe, she is also the author of Scandal and Reputation at the Court of Catherine de Medici (2016). She has held positions at the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney, Kent and Queen Mary University of London.
Reviews
In her remarkably wide-ranging, rich, and engaging survey, McIlvenna documents the extraordinary appetite for songs about capital crime and executions across Western Europe over four centuries. McIlvennas approach opens a new and important avenue for more comparative cultural work that tracks popular print culture across state, language, and social boundaries. A must-read for scholars and students of the ballad, and attractive for students interested in the development of horror as a genre, it is also an important resource for scholars working on the psychology of crime. * Dr. Angela McShane, University of Warwick *
With extraordinary erudition, Una McIlvenna provides an original, ambitious, and fascinating investigation into a now-vanished genre of print-the execution ballad. She most impressively crosses five languages and four centuries to explore how people throughout Western Europe vicariously inhabited the condemned's last words as supposedly sung from the scaffold. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of 'true' crime, public execution, and popular song. * Patricia Fumerton, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara *
The execution ballad was a distinctive sub-genre of cheap publishing from the first century of print to the nineteenth century, and in this definitive and wide-ranging study, Una McIlvenna does full justice to its musical subtlety, emotional appeal and moral purpose. This is a fantastic book, wide-ranging and authoritative, a landmark in the history of European print culture and balladeering. * Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews *
A challenging comparative study presenting a broad view of execution ballads throughout Europe. A vividly illustrated analysis in which music, pictures and texts in multiple languages bring life to five centuries of crimes and punishments through songs. * Eva Guillorel, Universite Rennes 2, Institut universitaire de France *
The book moves well beyond the inevitable gore, horror, and sensationalism to reveal many aspects of early modern society in a surprising and diverse number of ways. This is an outstanding work, not just for its vivid history and comprehensive scholarship, but also for its wonderfully lucid prose. * Sean McGlynn, University of Plymouth at Strode College Street, UK, Journal of Early Modern History 27 *
This book is sure to remain the most important study on execution ballads for years to come. * Nicholas Hammond, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, French Studies *
In Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900,...McIlvenna's study makes an important contribution to scholarship about ballads. * Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey, Early Modern Literary Studies *
The book moves well beyond the inevitable gore, horror, and sensationalism to reveal many aspects of early modern society in a surprising and diverse number of ways. This is an outstanding work, not just for its vivid history and comprehensive scholarship, but also for its wonderfully lucid prose. * Sean McGlynn, Journal of Early Modern History *
Singing the News of Death is a hefty scholarly tome. * David Atkinson, Folk Music Journal *
Singing the News of Death accounts for many powerful human emo-tions over four centuries, inviting us to look at various early modern European societies in new ways. * Gioia Filocamo, Conservatorio di musica 'Giulio Briccialdi' di Terni *
Singing the News of Death is an epic work that deserves the many accolades that are, no doubt, to come to both the text and its author. * Rachel Franks, Script & Print *
This is a big book in so many ways, and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of crime, execution, social regulation, or early modern culture in general. * Oskar Cox Jensen, Culture and Social History *
Awards
Winner of Winner, 2023 Katharine Briggs Award, The Folklore Society.
Book Information
ISBN 9780197551851
Author Una McIlvenna
Format Hardback
Page Count 554
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 162mm * 244mm * 39mm
About the Author
Una McIlvenna is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University. A literary and cultural historian of early modern Europe, she is also the author of Scandal and Reputation at the Court of Catherine de Medici (2016). She has held positions at the Universities of Melbourne, Sydney, Kent and Queen Mary University of London.
Reviews
In her remarkably wide-ranging, rich, and engaging survey, McIlvenna documents the extraordinary appetite for songs about capital crime and executions across Western Europe over four centuries. McIlvennas approach opens a new and important avenue for more comparative cultural work that tracks popular print culture across state, language, and social boundaries. A must-read for scholars and students of the ballad, and attractive for students interested in the development of horror as a genre, it is also an important resource for scholars working on the psychology of crime. * Dr. Angela McShane, University of Warwick *
With extraordinary erudition, Una McIlvenna provides an original, ambitious, and fascinating investigation into a now-vanished genre of print-the execution ballad. She most impressively crosses five languages and four centuries to explore how people throughout Western Europe vicariously inhabited the condemned's last words as supposedly sung from the scaffold. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of 'true' crime, public execution, and popular song. * Patricia Fumerton, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara *
The execution ballad was a distinctive sub-genre of cheap publishing from the first century of print to the nineteenth century, and in this definitive and wide-ranging study, Una McIlvenna does full justice to its musical subtlety, emotional appeal and moral purpose. This is a fantastic book, wide-ranging and authoritative, a landmark in the history of European print culture and balladeering. * Andrew Pettegree, University of St Andrews *
A challenging comparative study presenting a broad view of execution ballads throughout Europe. A vividly illustrated analysis in which music, pictures and texts in multiple languages bring life to five centuries of crimes and punishments through songs. * Eva Guillorel, Universite Rennes 2, Institut universitaire de France *
The book moves well beyond the inevitable gore, horror, and sensationalism to reveal many aspects of early modern society in a surprising and diverse number of ways. This is an outstanding work, not just for its vivid history and comprehensive scholarship, but also for its wonderfully lucid prose. * Sean McGlynn, University of Plymouth at Strode College Street, UK, Journal of Early Modern History 27 *
This book is sure to remain the most important study on execution ballads for years to come. * Nicholas Hammond, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, French Studies *
In Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900,...McIlvenna's study makes an important contribution to scholarship about ballads. * Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey, Early Modern Literary Studies *
The book moves well beyond the inevitable gore, horror, and sensationalism to reveal many aspects of early modern society in a surprising and diverse number of ways. This is an outstanding work, not just for its vivid history and comprehensive scholarship, but also for its wonderfully lucid prose. * Sean McGlynn, Journal of Early Modern History *
Singing the News of Death is a hefty scholarly tome. * David Atkinson, Folk Music Journal *
Singing the News of Death accounts for many powerful human emo-tions over four centuries, inviting us to look at various early modern European societies in new ways. * Gioia Filocamo, Conservatorio di musica 'Giulio Briccialdi' di Terni *
Singing the News of Death is an epic work that deserves the many accolades that are, no doubt, to come to both the text and its author. * Rachel Franks, Script & Print *
This is a big book in so many ways, and essential reading for anyone interested in the history of crime, execution, social regulation, or early modern culture in general. * Oskar Cox Jensen, Culture and Social History *
Awards
Winner of Winner, 2023 Katharine Briggs Award, The Folklore Society.
Book Information
ISBN 9780197551851
Author Una McIlvenna
Format Hardback
Page Count 554
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 162mm * 244mm * 39mm
