Royal Holloway, University of London
Graduate Student, Music
Thesis Title: Image and Influence: The Political Use of Music at the Court of Elizabeth I
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Abstract:
In the preface to their Cantiones Sacrae of 1575, court musicians William Byrd and Thomas Tallis declared that ‘music is indispensable to the state (necessarium reipub.)’. Yet, although the relationship between Elizabethan literature or portraiture and contemporary politics has been studied often, there has been little research into the political roles of music. This thesis seeks to explore this claim of Byrd and Tallis by examining how court music was used by both the Queen and her courtiers to serve their political aims. I consider the political meanings of music within special court entertainments (including plays, masques and musico-dramatic devices performed during progresses and tournaments), of regular court music, and of Elizabeth’s own musical talents. Music obviously had no direct role in the day-to-day administrative and governmental aspect of politics, yet its function did extend beyond ceremony and entertainment. Musical harmony was believed to promote political and social harmony which would ease the process of government. As a means of communicating and sweetening political messages, music was a method for manipulating diplomatic relations, petitioning the Queen, and even offering advice. Furthermore, the diverse and extensive range of symbolic meanings and cultural associations of music meant that its meaning could be skilfully manipulated to fashion image and identity. Simultaneously a tool of authority for the monarch and a tool of persuasion for courtiers, music was a valuable means for both the tactful influencing of policies and patronage, and for the construction of specific royal, aristocratic and national images.
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