American Popular Song

We've noticed that  Popular Music was one of America's Passions during the 1890s.  In those days, Americans were as much producers of music as consumers of them.  We've seen the advertisements for musical instruments of all types, and the presence of a musical instrument in the home (and the ability to play a musical instrument) were marks of gentility aspired to by members of all social classes.   To  respond to the appetite for popular music a  vigorous sheet music industry arose, and advances in printing technology and the availability of cheap paper made mass editions of the latest hits available to many people.  Tthanks to the internet, many examples of popular song are available in facsimile editions.  The cover art and the lyrics provide many insights to social and cultural attitudes, and the range is very wide, indeed.    What I'd like to have you do is visit the websites below and select  several songs which might appeal to your character.  I promise I won't demand that you sing your choices in class (unless you want to).

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/sheetmusic/;hf=0   This is the Historic American Sheet Music at Duke University.  Visit the Decades from 1880 to 1910

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/aasmhome.html  This is the African American Sheet Music Collection  which is part of the American Memory Collection.  It was assembled by Brown University  Note that this music was composed by blacks but its appeal was not limited to a black audience.  Much of it was racist.

For a history of Black Musical Theatre in the  1890s visit http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award97/rpbhtml/aasmsprs3.html  Be warned that  much of the music in this genre at this time would be considered offensive today.

Read, in Schlereth

 Chapter  7, Striving, pp. 243 -  26

There is always a way to rise, my boy
Always a way to advance
Yet the road that leads to Mount Success
Does not pass by the way of Chance
But goes through the  stations of Work and Strive
through the valley of Persevere
And the man that succeeds while others fail,
Must be willing to pay most dear.

Alexander Lewis

Some of you will remember the little poem quoted above.  Schlereth's chapter looks at the relationship between religion and education and the effects that religious ideas prevalent in the period acted as a stimulus for self improvement.  We'll follow this through formal  institutions like schools and colleges and into informal institutions like the Chautauqua Circuit and various schemes of self-education.  

Internet Assignment:

Visit http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm  which is an essay on the Chautauqua Movement.  After you've read about the movement and its history,  go to the home page of this collection at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/iauhtml/tccchome.html and browse through the materials there, choosing ONE of the pre 1910 lecturers or performers which stikes your fancy.  Record your character's reactions to the event.