Abstract
This paper will examine the forgotten Restoration sect known as the ‘Sweet Singers of Israel,’ regularly listed alongside Ranters, Muggletonians, Quakers and Anabaptists as dangerous enthusiasts in early Enlightenment England. Although the sources for its history are limited, I argue that the sect is worth rescuing from obscurity because it illustrates the continuity of an antinomian tradition in England after the Restoration, and indicates that music in worship was used as an expression of radical Christian liberty. Known for matching religious lyrics to secular ballad-tunes, and bawdy words to psalm settings, the Sweet Singers tested the boundaries between the spheres of the sacred and profane and sought to demonstrate that God was ‘all in all.’ Proposed here is that the Sweet Singers, with their extempore, prophetic verse and musical experiments, offer an insight into the creativity and volatility of this formative period in English church music.
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