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"Varder lekare sårad..." : Musik, politik och ideologi i tidigmedeltidens Norden

Erntell, Rebecka (2007)
Historical Archaeology
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and... (More)
The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and church art. It is concluded that Early Medieval music did meet the requirements for political use. Propaganda was already well-known and music was an effective medium, considering that it reached everybody in society, was diversified and could be influenced by several potentates.

In the case studies similarities are found between the music and different kinds of domestic and foreign propaganda. Political songs appeared in the fifteenth century at the latest, the pagan music tradition is set off in the Icelandic sagas and the Church used images of music symbolically in order to spread and illustrate a Christian world view.

The author suggests that music was deliberately used at least for ideological purposes, so as to illustrate cultural nuances and values. Any explicitly political aspects, though, could not be

assessed with the current sources. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Erntell, Rebecka
supervisor
organization
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Music,, propaganda,, ideology,, politics,, folk music lyrics,, Icelandic sagas,, mural paintings,, Nordic Early Middle Ages, Medieval history, Medeltidens historia
language
Swedish
id
1321045
date added to LUP
2007-05-21 00:00:00
date last changed
2007-05-21 00:00:00
@misc{1321045,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this paper is to illuminate and discuss the political and ideological aspects of Early Medieval Nordic music. Due to shortage of sources, this issue has been overlooked until now. Did Early Medieval Nordic music meet the requirements for political and ideological use? In what ways could music potentially be used politically and ideologically? Was music used as a political and ideological tool? This is examined by a contextual analysis combining music history and historical archaeology. The survey consists of a background account, focusing on the potential of music and some requests for political use, and three case studies, where musical reflections of societal tensions is investigated in folk music lyrics, Icelandic sagas and church art. It is concluded that Early Medieval music did meet the requirements for political use. Propaganda was already well-known and music was an effective medium, considering that it reached everybody in society, was diversified and could be influenced by several potentates.

In the case studies similarities are found between the music and different kinds of domestic and foreign propaganda. Political songs appeared in the fifteenth century at the latest, the pagan music tradition is set off in the Icelandic sagas and the Church used images of music symbolically in order to spread and illustrate a Christian world view.

The author suggests that music was deliberately used at least for ideological purposes, so as to illustrate cultural nuances and values. Any explicitly political aspects, though, could not be

assessed with the current sources.}},
  author       = {{Erntell, Rebecka}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{"Varder lekare sårad..." : Musik, politik och ideologi i tidigmedeltidens Norden}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}