19th Century Stage Music

pic from nstp.ucis.dal.ca

In the 19th century, Melodrama quickly became the most popular theater genre. The use of music to heighten the drama was the key ingredient in Melodrama's rapid popularity as audience members could relive their theater experience at home by performing or listening to favorite songs from a show. Audiences also delighted in the use of special effects, such as simulated natural disasters like fires and earthquakes, or fancy spectacles involving large casts and animals.

  
Listening: Reviews:
Home, Sweet Home (Bishop), CD1, #13 from Recordings for An Introduction to America's Music

Home, Sweet Home is one of the most popular songs of the 19th century and took the place of Yankee Doodle Dandy as the most favorite at the time. Taken from the1823 opera Clari, this melody of the piece was written by English composer Henry Bishop, but the words were written by American author John Payne. Payne started as an actor in his youth and began to tour, which caused him to spend much of his life abroad. Many believe that this is where he got the inspiration to write such sentimental lyrics that captured the hearts of any who heard the song. There is a detailed account here of how accutely the song would affect listeners, particularly in the military.

The song itself is written in a simple style of verse and chorus and the tune was reportedly based on a Sicilian Air from a book of airs that Bishop had edited in 1820. However, a subsequent lawsuit forced Bishop to admit that he had written the tune himself. The languid melody lends itself well to singing and allows the performer to express their emotions easily. The song also propels itself towards the downbeats of every other measure which also supplies a steady undercurrent allowing for group singing.


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Early Band Concert Music

pic from memory.loc.gov/ammem

Prior to the mid 19th century, brass bands were utilized mostly in the battle field as the brass instruments were heard more readily and their clumsiness did not lend very well to a more refined dance sound as woodwinds and string instruments did. However, post Civil War the quality and sophistication of brass instruments grew and many concert bands were formed. Concert music encompassed much of the popular music of the day and dance music was most definitely included.

Listening: Reviews:

Helene Schottishe, CD1, #20 from Recordings for An Introduction to America's Music

Written in the 1860s by Walter Dignam, the Helene Schottishe is a light and precise arrangement based on a dance form called the Schottishe. Similar to a polka, the Schottishe is a combination of steps and hops, which is apparent in the music that accompanies the dance. Accents within the song, such as staccatos, indicate where dancers would hop in a manner similar to earlier European court dances. As such the dance is most likely done by the middle to upper class in a ball setting.

This particular arrangement is for a concert band of 12 instruments: cornets, saxhorns and percussion. In an ABAC form, which is repeated twice completely, the music is purely to accompany the dance and is very balanced in sets of 8 for each section. The song is highly repetitive and predictable, therefore not making it very artistic. There are some dynamic contrasts within the music which happens mostly when a solo instrument is highlighted playing the melody. The instruments play crisp and sharp and the downbeat is accentuated in order to be clear to the dancers. At the end of the tune there is a slight ritard, which is where the dancers would most likely bow to each other.

To view an example of a Schottishe dance click on the video below

Early American Parlor Songs

Jeanette MacDonald pic from jeanetteandnelson.net

Parlor songs are popular songs that meant to be performed in the home, specifically in the parlor which often was where a piano was kept. The songs were printed as sheet music and gained popularity as the number of households with money to purchase the music grew.

The appeal of parlor songs lay in their ability to capture deep emotion through a melody that was pleasant and easy enough for the novice to sing. However, if one chose to sing the song in public one was expected to have a better than average voice and the ability to express the desired emotion the song portrayed. In the article "The Performance of Parlor Songs in America, 1790-1860,"  Nicholas Tawa gives contrasting reviews  that highlight the performer's ability to capture the sentiment of the parlor song, including a review in a Boston newspaper that reports a singer as having "no soul" due to the nature of her over-ornamentation:

For example, because Angelica Catalani's performances of songs stressed her virtuosity through runs, cadenzas, and other rapid ornaments, and because she sang all her songs in a similar manner, a Boston audience judged her to have no "soul." Her singing seemed merely a "tissue of embroidery," John Rowe Parker, editor of the Boston Euterpeiad, writes, and adds: "All this was said around me." On the other hand, a skilled ballad-singer, Clara Fisher, "on one occasion" was able to sing "what was intended to be a ludicrous appeal to sympathy with such wonderful truthfulness of suffering, that a majority of the audience was overcome with tears."

The charm of the parlor song is how it leveled the playing field between professional and amateur. One does not have to have exceptionally high technical skills to master a parlor song. In fact, many of the preferred "ballad-singers" at the height of popularity of the parlor song were singers who were unable to excel in more challenging genres, as shown in the article excerpt above.

Listening: Reviews:

Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair (Foster), CD1, #17 from Recordings for An Introduction to America's Music

This strophic piece was written by Stephen Foster, one of the most popular and prolific writers of parlor songs in the 19th century. The song is typical sentimental fare- the singer is longing to see their love who is no longer near, most likely dead. In this recording there are two female singers accompanied by an autoharp or dulcimer. The fact that the song is written from a man's point of view is of no matter as the singer is merely a vessel of the emotion of the song, as mentioned above. The accompaniment and vocal harmonies are fairly simple and defer to the melody, as they should. The singers' voices are pleasing, however the second singer has a strident tone to her voice and adds a bit too much personality in the form of slurs which can be distracting.