Moral Song in Late Renaissance France, 1550-1650

FAIN: FT-259893-18

Melinda Latour O'Brien
Tufts University (Somerville, MA 02144-2401)

Preparation for publication of a book-length study of moral songs and ethics during the Wars of Religion in late sixteenth-century France.

The Voice of Virtue offers the first book-length study of moral song, a fascinating domain of musical activity that gained traction during the Wars of Religion in late sixteenth-century France. Setting pithy and sometimes profound morsels of vernacular wisdom to simple tunes or elaborate polyphonic compositions, moral song offered a multi-sensory engagement with contemporary ethical thought. Whereas Medieval ethics developed within the boundaries of professional philosophy, the Renaissance saw an explosion of informal expressions of moral philosophy created by and for non-specialists. This will be the first book to illuminate song as one such expression of informal ethics, animating diverse moral principles drawn from ancient sources for a broad community of amateur musicians. Positioned at a rich intersection between cultural and intellectual history, The Voice of Virtue stands to make a significant contribution to music scholarship, ethics, and the reparative turn in the humanities.

Associated Products

The Voice of Virtue: Moral Song and the Practice of French Stoicism, 1574-1652 (Book)
Title: The Voice of Virtue: Moral Song and the Practice of French Stoicism, 1574-1652
Author: Melinda Latour
Abstract: The Voice of Virtue illuminates the musical practices at the heart of the Neostoic movement that spread across French lands during the Wars of Religion in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Guided by twin reparative traditions granting music and philosophy therapeutic power, composers and performers across the embattled Catholic and Protestant confessions turned to moral song as a means of repairing personal and collective virtue damaged by the ongoing conflict. Moral song collections enlarged interest in Stoic philosophy by circulating its ethical program to a broader audience through attractive paraphrases of Stoic maxims set to music. Even more importantly, this skillfully composed repertoire of polyphonic song offered a multi-sensory moral practice that would have resonated powerfully for those well-versed in the paradoxes of the Stoic tradition. Bringing together a repertoire of little-known music prints, a rich visual culture, and an impressive body of literary and philosophical sources, The Voice of Virtue not only illuminates the influence of Stoicism on music, but also reveals that we cannot fully understand Neostoicism as an intellectual or cultural movement without accounting for its vibrant musical sounds. Virtue, as voiced in these Stoic practices, proves to be both rational and fully invested in the sensory processes of the singing body.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-voice-of-virtue-9780197529744?q=voice%20of%20virtue&lang=en&cc=us#
Primary URL Description: The Voice of Virtue - Melinda Latour - Oxford University Press
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780197529744

The Voice of Virtue: Moral Song and the Practice of French Stoicism, 1574-1652 (Book)
Title: The Voice of Virtue: Moral Song and the Practice of French Stoicism, 1574-1652
Author: Melinda Latour
Abstract: The Voice of Virtue illuminates the musical practices at the heart of the Neostoic movement that spread across French lands during the Wars of Religion in the latter half of the sixteenth century. Guided by twin reparative traditions granting music and philosophy therapeutic power, composers and performers across the embattled Catholic and Protestant confessions turned to moral song as a means of repairing personal and collective virtue damaged by the ongoing conflict. Moral song collections enlarged interest in Stoic philosophy by circulating its ethical program to a broader audience through attractive paraphrases of Stoic maxims set to music. Even more importantly, this skillfully composed repertoire of polyphonic song offered a multi-sensory moral practice that would have resonated powerfully for those well-versed in the paradoxes of the Stoic tradition. Bringing together a repertoire of little-known music prints, a rich visual culture, and an impressive body of literary and philosophical sources, The Voice of Virtue not only illuminates the influence of Stoicism on music, but also reveals that we cannot fully understand Neostoicism as an intellectual or cultural movement without accounting for its vibrant musical sounds. Virtue, as voiced in these Stoic practices, proves to be both rational and fully invested in the sensory processes of the singing body.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-voice-of-virtue-9780197529744
Primary URL Description: OUP book website
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780197529744
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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