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BROWN-THESIS-2020.Pdf (2.977Mb) The Song of the Devil: Representation of Evil across the Seventeenth-Century Stage in London by Colin J. Brown, B.M., M.M. A Thesis In Musicology Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC Approved Dr. Stacey Jocoy Chair of Committee Dr. Angela Mariani Dr. Virginia Whealton Mark Sheridan Dean of the Graduate School December, 2020 Copyright 2020, Colin J. Brown Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the following people in assisting me in composing this thesis. Drs. Whealton and Mariani for sitting on my committee and their invaluable assistance and editorial suggestions. And Dr. Jocoy for being my advisor on this thesis, for her indispensable guidance, irreplaceable knowledge of seventeenth century music, and for her much-needed support during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you. ii Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1 What is evil in music? ......................................................................................................... 1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 2 The Royal Society of London and Sir Isaac Newton. ......................................................... 5 Literature Review ............................................................................................................... 7 History of Witches .............................................................................................................. 7 History of the Royal Society of London (RSL) .................................................................. 8 History of Seventeenth-Century Music .............................................................................. 9 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 12 Concordance/Discordance ................................................................................................ 14 Come Away, Hecate ......................................................................................................... 15 Purcell – Dido and Aeneas ................................................................................................ 16 Iconography ...................................................................................................................... 17 Synthesis ........................................................................................................................... 19 Feasibility.......................................................................................................................... 20 Conclusion / contributions ................................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER 2: EVIL IN JACOBEAN STAGE MUSIC................................................23 Depiction of Witches on the Stage .................................................................................... 25 Depiction of Witches in Masque ....................................................................................... 32 Depiction of Witches in Staged Music…………………………………………………..35 CHAPTER 3: EVIL ON THE REFORMATION STAGE ..........................................44 The English Civil War ...................................................................................................... 44 Dido & Aeneas .................................................................................................................. 52 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION........................................................................................62 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………………….66 iii Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 ABSTRACT Figuring prominently on the seventeenth century stage are the representations of the devil and his minions, witches, sorcerers, and lesser demons. As part of their nefarious activities, music usually is involved in their depiction in some way or form such as: singing, incanting, and evoking sound as a part of their supernatural atmosphere. Musicologists Curtis Price and Steven Plank have noted that from an extension of the earlier fascination with witches, most notably King James I, there came to be a proliferation of demons and witches portrayed on the English stage and in turn became a popular phenomenon. Later staged representations of the devil’s minions changed drastically from representations from the first part of the century. For instance, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth or even Middleton’s The Witch, representations were realistic and more frightening. In this paper I focus on the representation of the evil and associated characters, and how they are represented on the stage across the 1600s in England. I also focus on how the aesthetics changed between the beginning of the seventeenth century and the end of the century by the influence of early modern skepticism brought about by the introduction of the empirical method propagated by the Royal Society of London (est. 1660). The issue of witches also impacted the attitudes toward women and their involvement on the stage. I demonstrate this by focusing on two compositions. Robert Johnson’s “Come Away, Hecate!” written ce. 1609 as an example from the beginning of the century and Hennery Purecell’s opera Dido and Aeneas written in 1689 as an example from the latter half of the century. iv Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 I show how the devil and his associated characters are represented musically using melodic and harmonic analysis, iconography, and contextual historical sources. I argue that with the encroaching Enlightenment, visions of the horrific were centered around the incorporation of Italianate music that represented the replacement of the fear of magic to a fear of antithetical Catholics. v Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 LIST OF FIGURES Figrue 1. Damnable Practices printed in London in 1619 ............................................... 18 Figure 2. Witchcraft Discovered and Punished printed in London, 1682 ........................ 18 Example 2.1: Damnable Practices printed in London in 1619 ........................................ 30 Example 2.2: Witchcraft Discovered and Punished printed in London, 1682 ................. 30 Example 2.3: Inigo Jones’s designs for the masque Salmacida Spolia, 1640 .................. 33 Example 2.4: Costume sketch for an unidentified Queen from "The Masque of Queens",1609 ............................................................................................. 34 Example 2.5: “Come away, Hecate!” ............................................................................... 40 Example 2.5 continued...................................................................................................... 41 Example 3.1: “When I am laid in Earth”, mm.1-8 ............................................................ 55 Example 3.2: “O Let me Weep”, mm.1-9 ......................................................................... 57 Example 3.3: Circle of Fifths with Quarter-comma Meantone Distribution .................... 59 vi Texas Tech University, Colin J. Brown, December 2020 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION What is evil in music? Witches, warlocks, wizards, sorcerers, all have been a part of western culture for centuries and how they have been depicted through the arts has changed through history. Either on the stage or in visual art, the cackles and screams of the devil’s accomplices have echoed through the minds of humanity, giving a fright to young and old alike. What has interested musicologists is the extreme differences in the musicality of the staged portrayals of the demonic over the course of the long seventeenth century. In this thesis, I discuss the musical depiction of evil and the devil’s minions on the stage in early modern England, and how the views changed across the seventeenth century. For instance, in the first half of the seventeenth century witches were portrayed as women whose insane behavior was directly caused by the devil, while later portrayal at the end of the century were either comical or came from within the witch herself. I focus on publications that highly influenced the English public, like King James I’s Daemonologie and Reginald Scot’s A Discoverie of Witches, and on the influence of the Royal Society of London and the beginning of the new empirical method of science advocated by Roger Bacon and later by Sr. Isaac Newton. 2 I will demonstrate a change from a firm, religious belief to a more skeptical one. I discuss how these staged depictions show the changing views of 2 James I, King of England, King James, The First, Daemonologie (1597): Newes from Scotland, Declaring the Damnable Life and Death of Doctor Fian, a Notable Sorcerer Who Was Burned at Edenbrough in January Last (1591) (London : New York :John Lane ; E.P. Dutton, 1924) and Reginald Scot, Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft (London: William Brome, 1584). 1 Texas Tech University,
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