Peter Bennett
Case Western Reserve University, Musicology, Faculty Member
- Professor of Musicology, Case Western Reserve Universityedit
Music was a crucial battleground in the Wars of Religion. In spite of this, historians and musicologists have rarely combined their approaches to understand the full significance that music had in the civil wars. Historians have primarily... more
Music was a crucial battleground in the Wars of Religion. In spite of this, historians and musicologists have rarely combined their approaches to understand the full significance that music had in the civil wars. Historians have primarily studied how music shaped confessional identities, for example, as Protestants sang the Psalms together in worship or on the battlefield, to express their solidarity and take comfort in their faith despite persecution. Musicologists, on the other hand, have tended to concentrate on the most important composers from this time (such as Eustache Du Caurroy or Pierre Guédron), the genres in which they wrote (like ballets or airs de cour), or issues associated with the performance of this repertoire.
This conference brings together historians and musicologists with the aim of overcoming the boundaries that still remain between these scholarly disciplines. It focuses on the various contexts within which music was used and considers its impact in the Wars of Religion. Who sang music and for what aims? What was the relationship (if any) between the performance of music in elite circles versus the use of this art form among the wider public? Did music solidify or traverse confessional divisions? Lastly, how far can modern performers recreate the soundscapes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Treating the age of the Wars of Religion across a whole century and using France as a focal point for making wider comparisons, the papers in this conference will explore the role of music from all sectors of society, from the royal courts to the city streets, and from both Protestant and Catholic perspectives.
This conference brings together historians and musicologists with the aim of overcoming the boundaries that still remain between these scholarly disciplines. It focuses on the various contexts within which music was used and considers its impact in the Wars of Religion. Who sang music and for what aims? What was the relationship (if any) between the performance of music in elite circles versus the use of this art form among the wider public? Did music solidify or traverse confessional divisions? Lastly, how far can modern performers recreate the soundscapes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Treating the age of the Wars of Religion across a whole century and using France as a focal point for making wider comparisons, the papers in this conference will explore the role of music from all sectors of society, from the royal courts to the city streets, and from both Protestant and Catholic perspectives.
