Singing the News:Ballads in Mid-Tudor England

Hyde, Jenni (2018) Singing the News:Ballads in Mid-Tudor England. Material Readings in Early Modern Culture . Routledge, Abingdon. ISBN 9781138553477

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Abstract

Singing the News is the first study to concentrate on sixteenth-century ballads, when there was no regular and reliable alternative means of finding out news and information. It is a highly readable and accessible account of the important role played by ballads in spreading news during a period when discussing politics was treason. The study provides a new analytical framework for understanding the ways in which balladeers spread their messages to the masses. Jenni Hyde focusses on the melody as much as the words, showing how music helped to shape the understanding of texts. Music provided an emotive soundtrack to words which helped to shape sixteenth-century understandings of gendered monarchy, heresy and the social cohesion of the commonwealth. By combining the study of ballads in manuscript and print with sources such as letters and state records, the study shows that when their topics edged too close to sedition, balladeers were more than capable of using sophisticated methods to disguise their true meaning in order to safeguard themselves and their audience, and above all to ensure that their news hit home.

Item Type:
Book/Report/Proceedings
ID Code:
126755
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
10 Aug 2018 13:28
Refereed?:
No
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Sep 2023 02:13