Songs of Sodom: Singing About the Unmentionable Vice in the Early Modern Low Countries

ABSTRACT

Although sodomy was purportedly an “unmentionable vice” in the early modern period, popular songs from the Low Countries paint a different picture. Bringing musical sources to bear upon the subject adds an extra dimension to the now widely held view that sodomy was a multimedia phenomenon in early modern society. Sodomy was represented in art, literature, poetry, and popular song as well. These songs were pedagogical in that they aimed to encourage performers and audience to live a pious life, and they stimulated the formation of confessional identities. By drawing attention to this neglected chapter in the history of homosexuality—popular song in the early modern Low Countries—this article seeks to contribute to the research on cultural perceptions of sodomy in the period.