Sounding passions and therapeutic performance in Thomas Weelkes’s songs

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Abstract This article explores a group of Thomas Weelkes’s songs where the usually light-hearted, playful and often suggestive fa-la refrain is juxtaposed with melancholic lyrics. The contrasting passions in these texts provide inspiration for typically madrigalian musical expression, often involving chromatic writing for melancholic passages; however, the nonsense syllables in the fa-la refrains function differently. With no semantic text, the expression of these passages depends on the musical setting and the decisions taken by the performers, which might align or jar with prior expectations of fa-la refrains. Such passages are ambiguous and malleable, and the signification of the fa-las might change from stanza to stanza. Weelkes’s experimentation with how fa-la refrains might communicate a range of passions engages with contemporary debates about the extent to which music’s affective powers were reliant on, amplified by, or independent of text. Moreover, several of Weelkes’s songs enact a therapeutic purging of melancholy attributed to non-verbal or instrumental music. Given Weelkes’s interest in exploring sonic effects which are both onomatopoeic and utilize conventions of musical expression, these songs can be interpreted as not merely representations of the passions but as potential acts of musical therapy.