As Spain encountered economic and political crises in the seventeenth century, the imagery of musical performance was invoked by the state to represent the power of the monarch and to denote harmony throughout the kingdom. Gonzalez demonstrates that the success of this scheme lies in the long history of Western cultural usage of musical iconography, in which musical symbols were allied to good governance. Based on the study of a wide range of contemporary sources, Gonzalez is able to unravel the complex iconography of Spanish politics during a fascinating yet turbulent period.