Politics of Feeling in Songs of the Dutch Revolutionary Period

Renée Vulto, Assistant Professor of Intangible Cultural Heritage, sheds new light on the intertwined history of music and politics through her exploration of Dutch political songs in her book Politics of Feeling in Songs of the Dutch Revolutionary Period.

Songs as a powerful medium

In the emotionally charged climate of the Dutch revolutionary period at the close of the eighteenth century, songs became a powerful medium, speaking directly to people’s bodies to engage them in political action.

By emphasising the performative nature of the songs and the interplay between imagination and embodied expression in singing practices, this book shows how the songs did more than merely create communities. They were also instrumental in mobilising, imagining, and affirming these collectives.

Repertoire of feelings

Vulto uncovers the diverse roles of these songs, showing how they were used both to polarise and to unite, to mourn and to celebrate. They were employed to imagine and to embody togetherness throughout the Dutch revolutionary period, thereby creating a fixed repertoire of feelings on which various political regimes of that time relied.