Timeline of music in the United States (1850 - 1879)

This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1850 to 1879.__NOTOC__

1850

*The Adelphi Theater of Nashville, Tennessee opens, one of the largest stages in the country at the time. [Abel, pg. 249]
*The California Gold Rush brings the first major influx of European-derived music to the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada and northern California counties.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=California|last=Keeling|first=Richard|pages=412-419|others=cite journal|last=Herzog|first=George|year=1928|title=The Yuman Musical Style|journal=Journal of American Folklore|volume=41|issue=160|pages=183-231 and cite book|last=Nettl|first=Bruno|year=1954|title=North American Indian Musical Styles|location=Philadelphia|publisher=American Folklore Society]
*Isaac B. Woodbury publishes one of the "most successful song collections" of the era, "The Dulcimer; or, The New York Collection of Sacred Music". [Chase, pg. 144]
*One of the biggest star singers of the day is Jenny Lind, who demands the unheard-of sum of $187,000 from promoter P.T. Barnum to go on a national concert tour. Barnum raises the money, and promotes her so successfully that an estimated thirty thousand people arrived to watch her ship land in New York Harbor. [Crawford, pg. 186] She first performs at Castle Gardens in New York. [Burk, Meierhoff and Phillips, pg. 207] cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Snapshot: Four Views of Music in the United States|last=Preston|first=Katherine K.|coauthors=Susan Key, Judith Tick, Frank J. Cipolla and Raoul F. Camus|pages=554-569]
*The Luca Family performs at an abolitionist meeting in New York, then goes on to become the most prominent African American singing family of the kind inspired by the white Hutchinson Family. [Southern, pg. 106]
*The first theater opens in San Francisco, California.Crawford, pg. 193]
*Stephen Foster's "Gwine to Run All Night", or "De Camptown Races", becomes a minstrel show hit, helping to launch Foster's career; he would go on to become the most famous songwriter of the 19th century, [Crawford, pg. 210] and the first "full-time popular songwriter".
*The first American "Eisteddfod", a Welsh music and art festival tradition, is held in the United States. [Hansen, pg. 223]
*Swedish singer Jenny Lind goes on a nation-wide tour promoted by P. T. Barnum. It is a unprecedented success, earning more than $700,000 in proceeds. [cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|chapter=Impresario|pages=548-549|first=David|last=Horn]

1858

*William Walker's "Southern Harmony" contains a song consisting of the text from John Newton's "Amazing Grace" and the tune of the traditional song "New Britain"; this will go on to become one of the most famous songs of the American folk repertoire.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Overview of Music in the United States|last=Kearns|first=Williams|pages=519-553]
*Dan Emmett, one of the major composers of minstrel songs, begins his career, with Bryant's Minstrels. [Chase, pg. 240]
*Root & Cady, a Chicago-based music publishing firm, is founded. It will become the most successful publishing company in the North during the Civil War, and will publish most of the popular songs of the Civil War. [Cornelius, pg. 18] [cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music|chapter=Root & Cady|pages=592|first=Dave|last=Laing|Laing notes that Root & Cady "published most of the bestselling popular songs associated with the American Civil War".]

1859

*"Dixie", a song by Dan Emmett premiers onstage in New York, soon becoming a rallying cry for both sides of the Civil War. The song will eventually become an iconic symbol of the South.Crawford, pg. 264]
*One of the first observers to transcribe a melody from an African American slave song is James Hungerford, who publishes a novel, "The Old Plantation, and What I Gathered There in an Autumn Month", with a "boat song" from Southern Maryland. [Crawford, pg. 411]
*Patrick Gilmore, an Irish American bandleader, debuts his band in New York; the ensemble's professional and grandiose performances will make it one of the most popular of the Civil War era. [Crawford, pgs. 287-289]

1860

1866

*"The Black Crook" premiers at Niblo's Garden in New York City, using a melodrama and a French ballet troupe whose venue burnt to the ground while they still rehearsed. The "result was an unprecedented triumph", and was one of the major events in the early history of the extravaganza. Music was credited to Thomas Baker, author of "Transformation Polka". [Chase, pg. 360]
*George B. Loomis begins teaching music. He will be the first superintendent of music in the Indianapolis public school system, and will publish "Loomis' Progressive Music Lessons", a commonly used music education book in Indiana and surrounding states. He will also co-found the Indiana Music Teachers Association, one of the first such organizations in the country. [Birge, pg. 95]

1867

*"The Black Crook", an extravaganza featuring "melodrama, dance, music, extraordinary special effects, and mild eroticism... dazzled far beyond any previous theatrical conception".
*The Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Chicago Musical College and the Cincinnati Conservatory are all founded. [Southern, pg. 221]
*"Slave Songs of the United States" is the first, and most influential, [Darden, pg. 71] [Southern, pg. 152] [Malone and Stricklin, pgs. 26-27] collection of spirituals to be published; [Burnim and Maultsby, pg. 9] [Clarke, pg. 41 notes that the book will not be recognized as a landmark until 1929] the collectors were Northern abolitionists, William Francis Allen, Lucy McKim Garrison and Charles Pickard Ware. [Crawford, pg. 416] It is a "milestone not just in African American music but in modern folk history". [Darden, pgs. 99-100] Cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Overview|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|coauthors=Mellonee V. Burnin and Susan Oehler|pages=572-591] [cite journal|title=Cosmopolitan or Provincial?: Ideology in Early Black Music Historiography, 1867-1940|first=Guthrie P.|last=Ramsey, Jr.|journal=Black Music Research Journal|volume=16|issue=1|month=Spring,|year=1996|pages=11-42|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0276-3605%28199621%2916%3A1%3C11%3ACOPIIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V|accessdate=February 17|accessyear=2008] [Snell and Kelley, pg. 22] It is also the first published collection of African American music of any kind. [Chase, pg. 215] [Cusic, pg. 86]

1868

*"Humpty-Dumpty" is a popular extravaganza show, a follow-up to "The Black Crook" and featuring George L. Fox, then the greatest pantomime artist in the country. [Chase, pg. 361]
*John Thomas Douglass' "Virginia's Ball" is the first documented opera composed by an African American; it is now lost, but was performed at least once, in New York in this year.
*"Shi' naasha' is composed to commemorate the Navajos' release from a four year stretch of imprisonment at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It will become "probably the best known Navajo song". [cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Overview|pages=366-373|last=Heth|first=Charlotte]

1869

*Alice Fletcher records a delegation from Leech Lake in Washington D.C., the first recording of Ojibwe music.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|last=Romero|first=Brenda M.|chapter=Great Lakes|pages=451-460|others=cite journal|title=Chippewa Music|volume=2|last=Densmore|first=Frances|year=1913|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|issue=53|journal=Bureau of American Ethnology]
*Lew Johnson organizes his first permanent black minstrel troupe, in St. Louis, Missouri; he will be the most well-regarded minstrel show manager of the era.. [Southern, pg. 233]
*Bandleader Patrick Gilmore organizes a National Peace Jubilee in Boston, featuring more than 11,000 performers - soloists, a choir, an orchestra and others. The event inspired a wave of interest in instrumental music across the country. Music historian Richard Crawford has called this the "high-water mark in the influence of the band in American life". [Crawford, pgs. 289-291]
*Gardiner A. Strubes' "Strubes Drum and Fife Instructor" is adopted by the U.S. Army as the manual for training field musicians.

[
thumb|left|Fisk Jubilee Singers]

1870

*Research by William Dall is the first detailed ethnomusicological study of the indigenous peoples of the Western Arctic.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Arctic Canada and Alaska|last=Beaudry|first=Nicole|pages=374-382|others=cite journal|title=Eskimo Music of the Northern Interior Alaska|last=Johnston|first=Thomas F.|year=1975|journal=Polar Notes|volume=14|issue=54-57, cite book|location=Ottawa|first=Thomas F.|last=Johnston|publisher=National Museum of Man|others=Mercury Series 32|title=Eskimo Music, a Comparative Circumpolar Study|year=1976, cite journal|last=Johnston|first=Thomas F.|year=1976|title=The Eskimo Songs of Northwestern Alaska|journal=Arctic|volume=29|issue=1|pages=7-19, cite book|last=Dall|first=William H.|year=1870|title=Alaska and Its Resources|location=Boston|publisher=Lee and Shephard|edition=Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1970]
*A choir forms at the African American Fisk University - the Fisk Jubilee Singers; the choir will soon begin touring, bringing spirituals to wider audiences.Crawford, pg. 419]
*The music of Kansas City, Missouri had suffered mightily during the Civil War, as the conflict ravaged the city's industry, but its swift rebound culminates in the founding of the Coates Opera House this year. [Snell and Kelley, pg. 17, citing Albrecht, pgs. 2-6]
*The Library of Congress becomes the sole repository for copyrighted works.Bergey, Barry, "Government and Politics", pgs. 288 - 303, in the "Garland Encyclopedia of World Music"]
*Luther Whiting Mason releases "The National Music Course", a set of four books and a chart for educating students in musical notation, becoming one of the standard texts of American music education.Campbell, Patricia Sheehan and Rita Klinger, "Learning", pgs. 274 - 287, in the "Garland Encyclopedia of World Music"] [Birge, pg. 98]
*A Northern Paiute prophet named Wodziwob begins preaching the earliest manifestation of the teachings of the Ghost Dance.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Musical Interactions|last=Levine|first=Victoria Lindsay|coauthors=Judith A. Gray|others=cite journal|title=The Pan-Indian Culture of Oklahoma|last=Howard|first=James H.|year=1955|journal=Scientific Monthly|volume=18|issue=5|pages=215-220|pages=480-490]
*The Peace Policy places Native American reservations under the control of various Christian denominations, which takes its toll on the culture and music of indigenous peoples.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Plains|year=440-450|last=Gooding|first=Erik D. ]

*The technology to record sound, using a tin-foil cylinder phonograph, [Southern, pg. 309] is invented by Thomas Edison; [cite book|title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|chapter=Soundcarrier|pages=359 - 366|first=Andrew|last=Linehan] [cite book|title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|chapter=Cylinders|pages=508-509|first=Andre|last=Millard] his first recording is "Mary Had a Little Lamb".Seeger, Anthony and Paul Théberg, "Technology and Media", pgs. 235 - 249, in the "Garland Encyclopedia of World Music"]
*The Dakota Drum Dance is introduced to the Native Americans of the Great Lakes region; this is a set of beliefs that revolve around a legendary woman named Turkey Tailfeather Woman, who is said to have escaped from the American military and received instructions to build and use a large, ceremonial drum while in hiding. The religion based around this drum will spread throughout the region, and the drum itself will become the ancestor of the big drum used in modern powwow ceremonies.cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|last=Romero|first=Brenda M.|chapter=Great Lakes|pages=451-460|others=cite journal|title=Chippewa Music|volume=2|last=Densmore|first=Frances|year=1913|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|issue=53|journal=Bureau of American Ethnology]
*Sebastian Yradiers "La Paloma" popularizes the "habanera" in the United States. [Lewis, pg. 95]

1878

*James Bland, the most important black minstrelsy songwriter and the first successful black songwriter, [Clarke, pg. 27] publishes a huge hit with "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny",Cockrell, Dale and Andrew M. Zinck, "Popular Music of the Parlor and Stage", pgs. 179 - 201, in the "Garland Encyclopedia of World Music"] which will become the state song of Virginia in 1940. [Southern, pg. 238] Bland is the first African American composer whose music is published by a major company. [Cusic, pg, 81]
*James Monroe Trotter publishes "Music and Some Highly Musical People", making him the first "African American music historian". [cite journal|title=Cosmopolitan or Provincial?: Ideology in Early Black Music Historiography, 1867-1940|first=Guthrie P.|last=Ramsey, Jr.|journal=Black Music Research Journal|volume=16|issue=1|month=Spring,|year=1996|pages=11-42|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0276-3605%28199621%2916%3A1%3C11%3ACOPIIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V|accessdate=February 17|accessyear=2008]
*W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore" premiers in the United States, launching a fad for light opera throughout the country. [Chase, pg. 369]
*Sam Lucas, the "most celebrated minstrel" of the era, becomes the first African American to play Uncle Tom in "Uncle Tom's Cabin". [Southern, pg. 240]

1879

*The Bureau of American Ethnology is created at the Smithsonian Institution; the Bureau studies and documents Native American music and culture. [Crawford, pg. 395] Bergey, Barry, "Government and Politics", pgs. 288 - 303, in the "Garland Encyclopedia of World Music"]
*Ned Harrigan and Tony Hart transition from the variety show to the musical play, with stories centered around characters with distinct ethnic backgrounds. Their work established "ethnic groups as major characters in the American stage". [Chase, pg. 366]

References

* cite book
first = E.
middle = Lawrence
last = Abel
title = Singing the New Nation: How Music Shaped the Confederacy, 1861-1865
publisher = Stackpole Books
id = ISBN 0811702286
location = Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
year = 2000
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*
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* cite book
author = Chase, Gilbert
id = ISBN 0-252-00454-X
publisher = University of Illinois Press
title = America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present
year = 2000
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*cite book
author = Crawford, Richard
id = ISBN 0-393-04810-1
publisher = W. W. Norton & Company
title = America's Musical Life: A History
year = 2001
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*cite book
last = Erbsen
first = Wayne
title = Rural Roots of Bluegrass: Songs, Stories and History
year = 2003
location = Pacific, Missouri
isbn=0786671378
publisher = Mel Bay Publications
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*cite book|title=The American Wind Band: A Cultural History|first=Richard K.|last=Hansen|year=2005|publisher=GIA Publications|isbn=1579994679
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*
* cite book
last = Koskoff
first = Ellen (ed.)
id = ISBN 0-8240-4944-6
publisher = Garland Publishing
title = Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 3: The United States and Canada
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* cite book
first = Ronald D.
last = Lankford, Jr.
title = Folk Music USA: The Changing Voice of Protest
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location = New York
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* cite book
first = James
last = Miller
title = Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977
publisher = Simon & Schuster
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location = New York
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*cite book
editor = John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke (eds.)
publisher = Continuum
year = 2003
location = London
id = ISBN 0-8264-6321-5
title = Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1: Media, Industry and Society
*
*
*
*
*

Notes

Further reading

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