The document discusses popular music in 19th century America, including minstrel shows, parlor songs, plantation songs, and composers like Stephen Foster and John Philip Sousa. Minstrel shows featured white performers in blackface and helped establish popular song as a commercial genre. They synthesized folk and middle-class styles and used dance music widely. After the Civil War, varied forms of stage entertainment emerged like vaudeville and operetta. Composers like Foster and Sousa wrote songs and marches that celebrated American culture and remained widely popular.

1. Chapter Two Popular Music in the 19 th Century

2. Anglo-American – Americans of English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish ancestry

3. Oral tradition: Passed on by ear

4. Breakdown – up-tempo fiddle tune for dancing

5. Fiddle tunes Music for barn dance not concert stage Music considered “uncultivated” Recurring chorus influenced popular music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wttuP200fGM Listen: “Old Joe Clark”

6. Minstrelsy 1840s Set in motion a revolution in American popular music. Minstrel songs became part of fabric of American life

7. Folk elements – songs, fiddle, bones = new sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4NEr0SI3vc&feature=related

8. Blackface Performers smeared burnt cork on their faces to portray themselves as blacks

9. Minstrel Show 3 main performers Interlocutor – master of ceremonies Endmen – Tambo (tambourine) and Bones (animal bones used as percussion)

10. Main Characters of Minstrel Show Jim Crow = country bumpkin/ uneducated Zip Coon = city guy urban dandy

11. Importance of Minstrel Show First stage entertainment in America Primary purpose to entertain – not uplift/educate Minstrel show was catalyst for American popular song

12. Example - “De Boatman’s Dance” Verse/chorus, instrumentation, upbeat tempo Pseudo dialect, little authentic African-American music

13. Stephen Foster (1826-1864) Most important 19 th- Century American songwriter

14. Parlor Songs Simple, genteel Voice and piano Amateur

15. Plantation Songs Hybrid – merger of minstrel/parlor Parlor sentiment/ Minstrel theme Example – “Old Folks at Home”

16. African-American entertainers after the Civil War Jubilee Choirs – spirituals African-American minstrels – incorporate spirituals = minstrel-spirituals

17. First Black Entertainers More popular in minstrel shows Had to perpetuate the white stereo-types of plantation life – acting and blackface

18. Legacy of Minstrel Show Entertainment for masses – not to uplift/educate Used vernacular speech/music Synthesis of middle-class song/folk = a new style Use of dance music in mainstream – first instance

19. Cakewalk From minstrel show High stepping/syncopated dance Prize was a cake

20. Diversity in Popular Stage Entertainment after the Civil War Minstrel show made it clear that there was a market Improvements in everyday life Audience grew with immigration

21. Vaudeville – variety show Singers, dancers, comics, etc. No sense of unity Ca.1870: Replaced minstrel show as most popular form of entertainment in US Remained until 1930s – Depression

22. Revue – loosely joined show Based on European operas Watered down Irreverent, unrelated acts Thin plot all taken from minstrel show

23. Operetta – told stories of far-away places, long ago, exotic locations Fairy-tale settings Lite classical music for cultural elite

24. Quickly Developing Popular Music 2 decades before the Civil War = birth of popular music 3 decades after = birth of popular music industry

25. Tin Pan Alley Sound of song-pluggers sounded like tin pans crashing

26. Dance Rhythms in popular songs Waltz songs – ¾ time Example – “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”

27. Band Music Concert band- most popular instrumental ensemble of late 19 th century

28. John Philip Sousa – 1854-1932 – “The March King” Precision/musicianship Marches, popular tunes, originals, classical pieces, virtuoso soloists Example: “The Stars and Stripes Forever http://lcweb2.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/patriotic/100010504/100010504.mp3

29. Importance of Sousa and Foster Most famous works were immediately popular and remain popular Finest examples in the genre Music is uniquely American, with no African influence