Chapter 3: American Popular Music in the Nineteenth Century Pt.2
Chapter 3 explains how the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and new technology changed the way Americans created, shared, and experienced music. It focuses on the rise of parlor songs, reform music, patriotic songs, and the invention of the phonograph, showing how music became both a form of entertainment and a way to express social and political ideas.
Important Terms
Industrial Revolution – A period of technological and industrial growth that increased manufacturing, transportation, and urbanization.
Sheet Music – Printed music that people purchased and performed at home before recorded music existed.
Parlor Songs – Popular songs written for amateur musicians to perform at home, usually with piano accompaniment.
Upright Piano – A smaller, more affordable piano designed for home use.
Steinway & Sons – An American piano company founded by Henry Steinway that became known for high-quality pianos.
SATB – Four-part choral arrangement consisting of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices.
Social Reform Songs – Songs written to promote causes such as abolition and temperance.
Abolition – The movement to end slavery in the United States.
Temperance Movement – A movement encouraging people to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.
Courtship Songs – Sentimental songs focusing on romance, longing, and separation.
Sentimental Ballad – A song emphasizing emotions such as love, grief, or nostalgia.
Verse-Chorus Form – A song structure in which verses alternate with a repeating chorus.
Patriotic Songs – Songs written to inspire loyalty, courage, and national pride.
Homefront Ballads – Songs expressing the emotions of families waiting for loved ones during the Civil War.
Phonograph – The first machine capable of recording and playing back sound, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877.
Cylinder Recording – The earliest recording format used before flat discs.
Flat Disc – A recording format introduced by Emile Berliner that replaced cylinders.
Nickelodeon – A coin-operated machine that allowed people to listen to recorded music.
78 RPM Record – A shellac record that spins at 78 revolutions per minute.
Double-Sided Record – A record with music on both sides.
Artists Discussed
Henry Steinway (Heinrich Steinweg) – Founder of Steinway & Sons.
John Philip Sousa – Composer and bandleader who criticized recorded music in "The Menace of Mechanical Music."
Hutchinson Family Singers – Vocal quartet known for abolitionist and temperance songs.
Stephen Foster – America's most famous composer of parlor songs.
George F. Root – Civil War songwriter who wrote "Battle Cry of Freedom."
Julia Ward Howe – Wrote "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Walter Kittredge – Wrote "Tenting on the Old Campground."
James Ryder Randall – Wrote "Maryland, My Maryland."
Thomas Edison – Invented the phonograph.
Charles Cros – Independently conceived the phonograph.
Emile Berliner – Developed the flat-disc record.
Columbia Records – Early leader in the recording industry.
Victor Talking Machine Company – Major early record company.
Enrico Caruso – Opera singer whose recordings helped prove the commercial success of recorded music.
Songs Referenced
"Get Off the Track!" – Hutchinson Family Singers
"Old Dan Tucker" – Dan Emmett
"The Ghost of Uncle Tom" – Traditional abolitionist song
"The Death of Little Eva" – Traditional abolitionist song
"Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine" – Traditional temperance song
"Father's a Drunkard and Mother Is Dead" – Traditional temperance song
"Girls, Wait for a Temperance Man" – Traditional temperance song
"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" – Stephen Foster
"Beautiful Dreamer" – Stephen Foster
"Gentle Annie" – Stephen Foster
"Battle Cry of Freedom" – George F. Root
"Battle Hymn of the Republic" – Julia Ward Howe
"Dixie (I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land)" – Dan Emmett
"Tenting on the Old Campground" – Walter Kittredge
"Maryland, My Maryland" – James Ryder Randall
"The Vacant Chair" – George F. Root
"Just Before the Battle, Mother" – George F. Root
"Weeping, Sad, and Lonely" – Henry Tucker & Joseph P. Webster