3 Votes for a song
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Kate Bowan
Abstract
The balladeers and editors of George McClellan's campaign songster opined that not only did they represent, at least in part, McClellan's platform (and their estimation of his values), but also that they would resonate with potential voters. The capacity to make music could be seen as an index of popularity commensurate with voter endorsement. The pointed reference to the audience's expectations of instant gratification underscores the importance of music-making as a form of political discourse in action. Even a song that essentially offered a familiar anti-Tory critique of corruption, privilege and inequality, which might have been heard elsewhere in the Anglophone world in 1798 as easily as in 1882, was tinctured by a whiff of anti-Gallicanism.
Abstract
The balladeers and editors of George McClellan's campaign songster opined that not only did they represent, at least in part, McClellan's platform (and their estimation of his values), but also that they would resonate with potential voters. The capacity to make music could be seen as an index of popularity commensurate with voter endorsement. The pointed reference to the audience's expectations of instant gratification underscores the importance of music-making as a form of political discourse in action. Even a song that essentially offered a familiar anti-Tory critique of corruption, privilege and inequality, which might have been heard elsewhere in the Anglophone world in 1798 as easily as in 1882, was tinctured by a whiff of anti-Gallicanism.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Founding editor’s introduction x
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Songs of the world 32
- 2 The sound of marching feet 100
- 3 Votes for a song 140
- 4 ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ 165
- 5 Music, morals and the middle class 228
- 6 The challenges of uplift 264
- 7 ‘Sing of the warriors of labour’ 294
- Conclusion 345
- Index 363
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Founding editor’s introduction x
- Acknowledgements xii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Songs of the world 32
- 2 The sound of marching feet 100
- 3 Votes for a song 140
- 4 ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ 165
- 5 Music, morals and the middle class 228
- 6 The challenges of uplift 264
- 7 ‘Sing of the warriors of labour’ 294
- Conclusion 345
- Index 363
