Powers of Sound and Song in Early Modern Paris

The long and spectacular reign of Louis XIV of France is typically described in overwhelmingly visual terms. In this book, Nicholas Hammond takes a sonic approach to this remarkable age, opening our ears to the myriad ways in which sound revealed the complex acoustic dimensions of class, politics, and sexuality in seventeenth-century Paris.The discovery in the French archives of a four-line song from 1661 launched Hammond’s research into the lives of the two men referenced therein—Jacques Chausson and Guillaume de Guitaut. In retracing the lives of these two men (one sentenced to death by burning and the other appointed to the Ordre du Saint-Esprit), Hammond makes astonishing discoveries about each man and the ways in which their lives intersected, all in the context of the sounds and songs heard in the court of Louis XIV and on the streets and bridges of Paris. Hammond’s study shows how members of the elite and lower classes in Paris crossed paths in unexpected ways and, moreover, how noise in the ancien régime was central to questions of crime and punishment: street singing was considered a crime in itself, and yet street singers flourished, circulating information about crimes that others may have committed, while political and religious authorities wielded the powerful sounds of sermons and public executions to provide moral commentaries, to control crime, and to inflict punishment.This innovative study explores the theoretical, social, cultural, and historical contexts of the early modern Parisian soundscape. It will appeal to scholars interested in sound studies and the history of sexuality as well as those who study the culture, literature, and history of early modern France.

“Hammond concludes this page-turner by highlighting how the songs and sounds of early modern Paris ‘give voice to people who would otherwise have remained silent.’ He is to be thanked for making them heard today.”—Paul Scott, Paris Update, “By resurrecting sounds that occurred in specific acoustical spaces—and at times by analyzing the ways in which certain sounds traversed spaces—Hammond offers profound insights into issues of social rank, politics, sexuality, and the complex processes through which information circulated. Hammond’s book, which examines a wide array of acoustic experiences and representations, is a valuable contribution to a recent trend in French studies that is attentive to the sonic, the oral, and the performative.”—John Romey, Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music, “Hammond’s clear prose conjures the sights and sounds of the terrible punishments meted out to . . . unfortunates accused of various misdeeds. . . . Though the book contains no music notation, Hammond and his team have recorded several of the songs on parisiansoundscapes.org so that readers may listen along. Hearing for the first time—or rehearing in a new way—the songs of the condemned, the ordinary, and the historically forgotten is one of the many pleasures of this fine book.”—Michael A. Bane, Renaissance Quarterly, “[An] unusual, tightly focussed, and evocative book.”—Mark Greengrass, French History, “Hammond’s evocation of the vanished sound worlds of seventeenth-century France is exemplary, as are the pieces he adds to our puzzle of early-modern sexual activity and sexual identity. That he does so through pages that are consistently a pleasure to read enhances the achievement.”—Laura Mason, Journal of Modern History

Nicholas Hammond is Professor of Early Modern French Literature and Culture at the University of Cambridge.