Dr Una McIlvenna, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the
ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, will feature
on ABC Radio Nationals" 'Into the Music' program.
A Woeful Sinner's Fall: ballads of execution
This truly gruesome program explores the phenomenon of the
execution ballad-the printed pamphlet telling, in song, the story
of the crime and of the condemned. These songs tell of the
descent into vice, give account of the crime in all its appalling
detail and purport to give voice to the true repentance of the
doomed sinner. In what was a profitable line of business for
early printers, the songs were declaimed by the ballad seller and
spruiked to the crowd gathered to see the offender put to
death.
Una McIlvenna is a post-doctoral research fellow with the ARC
Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. She's
investigating emotional responses to public execution in the early
modern period and is particularly interested in the use of song and
verse in accounts of execution. In this program, Una talks
(and sings) to Robyn Johnston. We also hear readings of
contemporary accounts of the execution ballad trade and delve into
the Old Bailey's archives to hear how ballad sellers were no
strangers to the seamy underbelly of early modern society.
Producer: Robyn Johnston
Sound engineer: David Le May
Date and time:
4.05pm Saturday 15 December
(repeated 9.05pm Monday 17 December 2012)
ABC Radio National:
Find your local frequency here
For four weeks after broadcast, this program will also be
available for streaming from www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic
