Singing the news of death : execution ballads in Europe 1500-1900 /
Una McIlvenna.
- New York : Oxford University Press, c2022.
- xvii, 533 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
- New cultural history of music series .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Singing the News of Death explore the hugely popular phenomenon of execution ballads in Europe from the early modern period onwards, revealing how song was employed for centuries as a common means of informing society about the news of public executions. It examines how these ballads, usually cheaply printed and sold by itinerant peddlers, framed the news of crime and punishment, and how the unique features of song - rhythm, rhyme and melody - presented information about criminals in a way that prose accounts could not."-- Dustjacket front flap.