Current research in the context of the research group "Music, Conflict and the State"

English Jacobite song and the emblematic nature of its tunes


“If fiddles could speak treason, they had done”, this was Mr. Houghton’s response to the incident of 1st February 1750 at a Manchester Assembly ball, as documented in the diary of Lord John Byrom. During the evening’s entertainment, “Sir Watkins’ Jig” was requested and played, and a government officer in the crowd emitted a cry of treason since the jig was written for, and had become associated with, a well-known Jacobite. Many instrumental tunes were considered to be Jacobite through semantic association (in this case the jig’s connection to an infamous Jacobite). As a result, tunes were transformed into emblems of the cause. They enabled a means of identification for Jacobite adherents, functioning both openly and clandestinely as markers of political affiliation and belief.

The project will focus on English Jacobitism, exploring the interconnections that exist between music and words (as they relate to Jacobite figures, events, battles and culture more broadly), the attribution of meaning that results and the consequent symbolisation of Jacobitism in tunes. The project will demonstrate the ways in which music acts as an agent of meaning through its capacity to signify different things for diverse communities and its ability to act either in conjunction with linguistic meaning (thereby reinforcing it) or in distinction from it (thereby creating a tension with it).