From JSTOR Daily
In 1542, Protestant reformers including John Calvin himself took power in the city of Geneva, turning it into a center of the Reformation. As musicologist Melinda Latour writes, one priority for the government over the decade that followed was stamping out illicit singing.
Latour writes that Calvin deeply respected the power of music, describing singing as a kind of public prayer capable of moving people’s hearts to zealously praise God. But that same power could feed evil thoughts and deeds.
“Just as wine is cast into a vessel through the funnel, so also venom and corruption are dropped down into the depths of the heart through melody,” Calvin wrote.
Yet singing was a common pastime for all sorts of people in Geneva, and many popular songs were deemed “indecent,” “dissolute,” or “outrageous.” And so, between 1542 and 1552, the city’s hybrid civic-religious court, the Consistory, judged more than one hundred cases involving singing. These included a gentleman singing with his manservant on Mardi Gras, seven apprentices of a ribbon maker singing together, and a woman charged for singing while working in her house and yard, among many others. While in most cases the specific song was not recorded, when it was, it often had lyrics with sexual contents or innuendo. Songs were also frequently flagged as dance music—while authorities viewed singing as having a proper place in praising God, dancing was totally forbidden as a gateway to fornication. (Read more.)
