O Let Us Howle Some Heavy Note : Music for Witches, the Melancholic, and the Mad on the Seventeenth-Century English Stage

In the 17th century, harmonious sounds were thought to represent the well-ordered body of the obedient subject, and, by extension, the well-ordered state; conversely, discordant, unpleasant music represented both those who caused disorder (murderers, drunkards, witches, traitors) and those who suffered from bodily disorders (melancholics, madmen, and madwomen).

While these theoretical correspondences seem straightforward, in theatrical practice the musical portrayals of disorderly characters were multivalent and often ambiguous. "O Let Us Howle Some Heavy Note" focuses on the various ways that theatrical music represented disorderly subjects - those who presented either a direct or metaphorical threat to the health of the English kingdom in 17th-century England.

Using theatre music to examine narratives of social history, Winkler demonstrates how music re-inscribed and often resisted conservative, political, religious, gender, and social ideologies.

Amanda Eubanks Winkler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Syracuse University, specializing in early music. Her articles and reviews have appeared in "Cambridge Opera Journal", "Notes", and "Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music".

She is the author of "Music for Macbeth" published by A-R Editions.