{"id":2350,"date":"2017-10-24T12:55:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T12:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2350"},"modified":"2017-10-25T14:44:52","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:44:52","slug":"river-music-american-music-prior-to-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2350","title":{"rendered":"River Music, American Music Prior to Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirteenth in a Series<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com<\/p>\n

Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2017<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

River traffic blew open the West after 1820, driving development and reducing isolation along major valleys. Boats arrived at wharfs and landings round the clock, all types of watercraft bringing people, technology, information, and culture<\/em>\u2014arts and entertainment. \u201cThe tremendous part the river life played in developing the ambitions and intelligence of the western settlers can never be estimated,\u201d Ida M. Tarbell observed for McClure\u2019s <\/em>monthly in the latter century.<\/p>\n

An entertainment core developed along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, including \u201cfloating theaters\u201d that landed practically anywhere. \u201cAlmost every actor of the time with courage, ingenuity, and a crusading love of [the] art wanted to play the West. The river and boats were ready to provide transportation,\u201d wrote Philip Graham, author of Showboats: History of an American Institution<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The famed Chapman family revolutionized entertainment on water during the 1830s. The talented Chapmans garnered grassroots acclaim from aboard their showboats\u2014a series of flat barges until purchase of a steamer\u2014literally delivering their extraordinary performances in drama, comedy and song. The Chapman Floating Theatre started each trip\u00a0from Pittsburgh, wending southwest to Cairo then south to New Orleans, and stopped at every shoreline mustering an audience, town or plantation, especially with good fishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the wealth of the region gravitated toward the rivers, and audiences along their banks needed entertainment and were anxious to pay for it,\u201d Graham observed. Modern musicologist Bill C. Malone, author of Southern Music\/American Music<\/em>, noted that early audiences \u201cresponded to whatever was available. They could alternate between a melodrama and a Shakespearean tragedy, a minstrel show and a concert by Jenny Lind.\u201d<\/p>\n

River entertainers, in turn, learned to expect anything. A Shakespearean troupe worked down the Mississippi on a flatboat in 1835, self-billed as the \u201cArk Theatre,\u201d staging Hamlet<\/em> dockside at one village. \u201cHere were music, madness, moonshine\u2014philosophy, poetry and performances\u2014comedy, tragedy and farce, all [on] water,\u201d recounted an actor in attendance.<\/p>\n

Lo, a real villain untied the barge, casting it adrift to \u201cour horror and astonishment\u2026,\u201d the actor recorded, \u201cfinding ourselves in the mighty current of the Mississippi, floating downstream, without sail or rudder, at the rate of five miles an hour!\u201d The craft was run ashore safely, but far downriver. \u201cI will not tire your gracious patience with the details of our tramp through interminable swamp and across muddy creeks,\u201d sniffed the dramatist. \u201cSuffice it to say, that half the party lost their shoes and all their tempers, and that at about sunrise the next morning, a set of squalid, tired, bespattered and hungry wretches were seen entering the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

A theater audience lost control on a summer night at Louisville, indoors under gas chandelier and candlelight. \u201cLouisville was a grand harbor for flatboat men and steamboat men,\u201d explained a Courier-Journal<\/em> account, decades later, recalling \u201cthe free-and-easy style of manners which were sometimes witnessed in the old theaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Samuel Drake\u2019s theater on the evening of Louisville legend, 1837, audience action eclipsed the stage show after a drunken boatman passed out in tier seating. Had the man slept quietly \u201cthe attention of the crowd of spectators would not have been diverted from the stage, where several stars were moving in all their luster,\u201d the paper recounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlas! The sleeper snored. He emitted long rolls of nasal thunder whose noise threatened to drown out the deep-chested declamation of the actors.\u201d Objections arose immediately at rear of the auditorium, from sweaty river men packed in \u201cthe pit,\u201d a sunken area for standing only. \u201cThe admission fee there was only a quarter, and the demons of the pit entered their part of the theater through the basement\u2026 For such an assembly the sleeper\u2019s notes of defiance were too provoking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The snoring continued and catcalls increased until the sleeper woke suddenly, enraged, to curse and threaten his critics. \u201cA knot of men in the pit directly under him especially attracted his attention by their demonstrations\u2026 so he quickly leaped over the railing, right in among them and began making his fists play furiously around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut his courage availed him nothing,\u201d The Courier-Journal<\/em> continued. \u201cThe pit wanted a fight badly\u2026 the usual arrangements of the night were completely reversed, the spectators being converted into impassioned actors, while the professional actors, arranged in the spangles, plumes and tinseled finery of the drama, looked in utter amazement on the contest that raged below them.\u201d The offending theatergoer was beaten to the floor, \u201can unsightly mass of rags, blood and filth,\u201d and carried out. Stage actors resumed their work but warily, lacking the passion of boatmen.<\/p>\n

Louisville boomed as gateway to the West and far South, capitalizing on slave trade among businesses. Population spiked, ranking Louisville among leading U.S. cities, and entertainment options grew proportionately. Big circuses were spectacles that stretched urban blocks, such as the G.R. Spaulding and Dan Rice shows, inspiring a holiday atmosphere. Louisville hosted ventriloquists, magicians and occultists, and \u201chuman oddities\u201d like Tom Thumb, with his manager P.T. Barnum, of the traveling American Museum and menagerie.<\/p>\n

Stars in drama, comedy and music, talents of America and Europe, played regularly in Louisville, typically at Drake\u2019s theater or the Apollo Rooms of William C. Peters and partners.<\/p>\n

Drake, as in his management practice since the legendary Green Street Theatre in Albany, employed stock actors at Louisville while allowing amateurs their stage turns. \u201cThe Drake family were a magnificent company in themselves,\u201d said E.S. Conner, American actor who tutored under Drake. \u201cSamuel and his sons Sam and Jim were artists, each in their line. His daughter Julia was a transcendent lovely and fine actress. She [became] mother of the renowned Julia Dean.\u201d<\/p>\n

W.C. Peters, like the elder Drake, was a charismatic English emigrant, a talented musician and capable entrepreneur. Classically trained, Peters performed, composed and arranged songs prodigiously. He came to Louisville from Pittsburgh, opening a music store and teaching piano and guitar; he founded a music library, circulating sheets of lyric and melody.<\/p>\n

Peters branched into song publishing around 1835, right on time for serving America\u2019s first native wave of popular artists. These maverick musicians, primarily whites from the North, needed independent publishers like Peters of the West and South, in the beginning. Their collaboration proved integral for the marketing of purely American music, ballads and spirituals of English and African origins.<\/p>\n

This antebellum American music, foreshadowing genre offshoots to come, was forged of interracial sharing, of positive synergy between whites and blacks, yet roiled by racial insensitivity and malice. Interracial greatness entwined with racial conflict would endure for generations in America, and mark the evolving, epic music of the South.<\/p>\n

\u201cIronically, much of the distinctiveness of southern music comes from the region\u2019s long juxtaposition of the white and black races and from its widespread rural poverty and isolation,\u201d wrote Charles P. Roland, historian and editor, in 1979.<\/p>\n

\u201cAesthetically unsophisticated and, by the usual standards, deprived, poor southerners responded by preserving and developing a folk tradition of ballads and spirituals, of blues and jazz, and of hillbilly, country, and gospel music. Finally, strains from all of these types blended to help create rock, the nearest thing there is, perhaps, to an ecumenical art form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afloat\u2014Chapman\u2019s Floating Theatre. (1837, June 6). New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em>, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Amusements. (1889, June 2). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 13.<\/p>\n

An Old Actor\u2019s Memories. (1881, June 5). New York Times<\/em>, p. 10.<\/p>\n

Baynham, Edward Gladstone. (1944). The Early Development of Music in Pittsburgh<\/em> [PhD thesis]. University of Pittsburgh Graduate School: Pittsburgh PA.<\/p>\n

Booth, J.B. (1835, July 17). Theatrical Adventures on the Mississippi. Weekly Mississippian<\/em>, Jackson MS, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Brown, Maria Ward. (1901). The Life of Dan Rice<\/em>. Author published: Long Branch NJ.<\/p>\n

Chapman. (1839, Aug. 15). New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em>, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Chillicothee\u2019s 1897 Yesterdays. (1928, June 8). Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune<\/em> MO, p. 2.<\/p>\n

C.L. (1881, June 5). An Old Actor\u2019s Memories. New York Times<\/em>, p. 10.<\/p>\n

Cockrell, D. (1997). Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World<\/em>. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, and New York NY.<\/p>\n

Co-Partnership. (1839, May 4). [Advertisement.] Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Death of a Well-Known Citizen. (1866, April 23). Louisville Daily Journal<\/em> KY, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Dietz, M.M. (1921, May). A History of The Theatre In Louisville<\/em> [MA thesis]. University of Louisville, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Louisville KY.<\/p>\n

Drake, J.G., & Peters, W.C. (1835). Wound Not Thou the Heart that Loves Thee<\/em>. George Willig: Philadelphia PA.<\/p>\n

Dramatics on a Flatboat. (1884, Jan. 20). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 14.<\/p>\n

Dumont, F. (1896, April 5). The Origin of Minstrelsy. Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Extract from a Letter Dated Cairo, Illinois. (1840, Feb. 1). Salt River Journal<\/em>, Bowling Green MO, p. 3.<\/p>\n

First Appearance of Mr. Felix. (1836, June 22). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Gen. Tom Thumb. (1850, Jan. 23). Louisville Daily Courier<\/em> KY, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Gerteis, L. (1995, Spring). St. Louis in the Age of the Original Jim Crow. Gateway Heritage<\/em>, 15 (4), pp. 1-9. Missouri Historical Society: Columbia MO.<\/p>\n

Graham, P. (1951). Showboats: The History of an American Institution<\/em>. University of Texas Press: Austin TX.<\/p>\n

Gudmestad, Robert H. (2011). Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom<\/em>. Louisiana State University Press: Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

Handy, W.C. (1941). Father of the Blues<\/em>. The Macmillan Company: New York NY.<\/p>\n

He Is Truly American. (1889, Sept. 1). Why Pianist William M. Sherwood Is Fond of Chicago. Chicago Tribune<\/em>, p. 7.<\/p>\n

Hornblow, A. (1919). A History of the Theatre In America: From Its Beginnings to the Present Time<\/em>. J.B. Lippincott Company: Philadelphia PA and London, England.<\/p>\n

Inge, M.T., & Piacentino, E. [Eds.] (2010). Southern Frontier Humor: An Anthology<\/em>. University of Missouri Press: Columbia MO.<\/p>\n

Kleber, John E. (2015, Jan. 13). The Encyclopedia of Louisville<\/em>. The University Press of Kentucky: Lexington KY.<\/p>\n

Latest Eastern Musical Publications. (1845, May 6). [Advertisement.] Louisville Daily Courier<\/em> KY, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Letter From New York. (1850, Dec. 21). New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em>, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Lhamon, W.T., Jr. (1998). Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop<\/em>. Harvard University Press: Cambridge MA and London, England.<\/p>\n

Local and Provincial. (1848, Oct. 18). Free-Trade Hall\u2014\u201cJuba\u201d and The Serenadors. London Guardian<\/em>, England, p. 5.<\/p>\n

Local and Provincial. (1849, Jan. 24). Juba and The Serenadors. London Guardian<\/em>, England, p. 5.<\/p>\n

Louisville Song Writers. (1900, Dec. 9). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 29.<\/p>\n

Ludlow, N.M. (1880). Dramatic Life as I Found It<\/em>. G.I. Jones and Company: St. Louis MO.<\/p>\n

Malone, B.C. (1979). Southern Music\/American Music<\/em>. The University Press of Kentucky: Lexington KY.<\/p>\n

Messrs. \u201cPotters and Waters.\u201d (1837, Feb. 22). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Music. (1848, Oct. 2). New Orleans Crescent<\/em> LA, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Music at Home and Abroad. (1866, April 21). Louisville Daily Courier<\/em> KY, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Music of the Future. (1891, May 19). Chillicothe Morning Constitution<\/em> MO, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Musical Notes. (1889, Aug. 25). Chicago Tribune<\/em>, p. 28.<\/p>\n

Narine, D. (1995, June 18). African Music\u2019s Journey to Mainstream. Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel<\/em> FL, p. 1F.<\/p>\n

New and Popular Music. (1849, Jan. 24). Nashville Tennessean<\/em>, p. 3.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connell, JoAnne. (2016). The Life and Songs of Stephen Foster<\/em>. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham MD.<\/p>\n

Owen, R. (2001, April 20). King of Pop: PBS Celebrates the Life and Songs of Stephen Foster. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/em>, p. 44.<\/p>\n

School For Young Ladies. (1836, Aug. 27). [Advertisement.] Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Smith, S. (1868). Theatrical Management in the West and South for Thirty Years<\/em>. Harper & Brothers: New York NY.<\/p>\n

Tarbell, I.M. (1896, July 12). The Mississippi Valley Fleet. Salt Lake Herald<\/em> UT, p. 10.<\/p>\n

The Circus in Earlier Days. (1880, Dec. 9). [Advertisement.] Milan Exchange<\/em> TN, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Theatricals In Louisville. (1881, Dec. 11). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p.9.<\/p>\n

Thompson, R. (1955, March 19). A Saturday Night Historical Notebook. Dixon Evening Telegraph<\/em> IL, p.4<\/p>\n

Two Nights more of the Great Magician. (1836, June 6). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em> KY, p. 2.<\/p>\n

William C. Peters, 1805-1866. (Accessed 2017, Oct. 20). loc.gov [online]. United States Library of Congress: Washington DC.<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer and consultant in Missouri, USA. For more information visit\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.\u00a0Email:\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirteenth in a Series By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2017 Copyright \u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney River traffic blew open the West after 1820, driving development and reducing isolation along major valleys. Boats arrived at wharfs and landings round the clock, all types of watercraft bringing people, technology, … Continue reading River Music, American Music Prior to Civil War<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[283,374],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-BU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2350"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2370,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350\/revisions\/2370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}