The Voices That are Gone Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song

by Finson, Jon W.

• ISBN13: 9780195057508
• ISBN10: 0195057503
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-06-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this unique and readable study, Jon Finson views the mores and values of nineteenth-century Americans as they appear in their popular songs. The author sets forth lyricists' and composers' notions of courtship, technology, death, African Americans, Native Americans, and European ethnicity by grouping songs topically. He goes on to explore the interaction between musical style and lyrics within each topic. The lyrics and changing musical styles present a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century America. The composers discussed in the book range from Henry Russell ("Woodman, Spare That Tree"), Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna"), and Dan Emmett ("I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land"), to George M. Cohan and Maude Nugent ("Sweet Rosie O'Grady"), and Gussie Lord Davis ("In the Baggage Coach Ahead"). Readers will recognize songs like "Pop Goes the Weasel," "The Yellow Rose of Texas," "The Fountain in the Park," "After the Ball," "A Bicycle Built for Two," and many others which gain significance by being placed in the larger context of American history.

Author Biography

Jon Finson has taught courses in the history of nineteenth-century music and in American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
The Distant Beloved: Genteel Romance Before the Civil War	p. 3
Realism and National Industry: Courtship in the Gilded Age	p. 43
Familiar Journey: Protocols of Dying in the Nineteenth Century	p. 83
The Social Faith: Popular Views of Technology	p. 122
Antebellum Minstrelsy and the Carnivalesque	p. 159
Postbellum Blackface Song: Authenticity and the Minstrel Demon	p. 200
The Romantic Savage: American Indians in the Parlor	p. 240
Out of Many, One? Western European Ethnicity	p. 270
References	p. 315
Illustrations	p. 176
Index of Song Titles	p. 323
Index of Names	p. 330
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