Music Instruments

[Marge Smith]

Lots of violins in probates

Betsymaid

[mary]

Marge-

Could you please elaborate on your message regarding the violins.

Thanks!
Mary

[mary]

The mountain dulcimer, as we know it today, has been known historically under a variety of names. It has been referred to as the Appalachian dulcimer, lap dulcimer, Kentucky dulcimer, as well as local variant names such as the hog fiddle, music box and the harmony box.

Many believe that the dulcimer is a modern phenomonen truely reflective of only the twentieth century. Serious research on the dulcimer has been done only since the late 1950's.

Research by Dr. Lucy Long, a professor in North Carolina, suggests that the dulcimer was more widely used than originally thought. Her work is my source for this post.

Ralph Lee Smith and L. Alan Smith documented the origins of the dulcimer and the organological development of the dulcimer is divided into 3 periods. They are the transitional period (1700 to mid 1800's), pre-revival or traditional (mid-1800's to 1940) and contemporary.

In the transitional period, the dulcimer was developed in the Shenandoah River Valley of SW Penn. and western VA., blending the British, Ulster Scot and lowland Scot music traditions.

Dulcimers are easily constructed by hand and generally appear to be made by isolated individuals, although several pockets of family tradition arose in N. Carolina and Va. The settlement school and the crafts movement brought the dulcimer to the attention of those outside of the Appalachians.

Traditional playing methods probably varied, using adaptations from bowing with a fiddle and strumming from banjo or guitar. It is usually placed in the player's lap and strummed with fingers, plectrum or feather quill held in the right hand.

The traditional repetoire of the dulcimer includes the full range found in the mountains, dance tunes, traditional British balladry, minstrel show tunes and gospel. One should carefully note the dates of specific ballads and minstrel show tunes for the period they are trying to represent.

Additional information and a complete bibliography can found at www.bearmeadow.com/smi.histof.htm. See dulcimer.

Milo Quaife,who wrote A Woman's Story of Pioneer Illinois The society described by Mrs. Tillson was predominantly southern in origin and sentiment. In 1818, with a population of 35,000 "4 persons out of every 6 were of southern stock, one was of foreign
origin and 1 of northern (New England or Middle Atlantic) antecedents."

Based on this information, we suspect that inhabitants of the mining region MAY have had modest amusements or musical instruments... easily transported or at least easily and inexpensively made. This may include the mountain dulcimer. Such modest amusements certainly would have increased with the arrival of families to the area.

[Marge Smith]

I like the sound of a dulcimer, I'll keep looking for one in my research and let you know.

One Galena store was selling "music instruments". Unfortunately we don't know what kind. They had dances going on in Galena. Mr. Oldendorf opened up his hall for dances. Other communities would have had music also, I'm sure.

Marge

[Marge Smith]

I'm reading Wau-bun again. Juliette Kinzie brought her piano with her in 1830 from Detroit thru Green Bay to Fort Winnebago. She claims when it was unpacked it did not need tuning. It was packed in a box with a mattress on top during the Mackinac boat ride. They used this as a divan during the day and a place of repose at night.

Maybe it was a harpsichord, those never sound in tune to me.

Marge

[Robert Braun]

An interesting thought that it might be a harpsicord. Upon reflection, I am inclined to think that the instrument was as Juliette indicated--- a piano.

My reasoning is this: the harpsicord was definately on the wane in Jacksonian America, while the piano, both in Europe and correspondingly in America, was riding a wave of popularity, cresting with the bridging of the Classical and the Romantic eras of music and composition. Classical composers like Mozart, Haydn, and van Beethoven used the piano almost exclusively. (In fact, the piano had been in existance for about 100 years by the time of van Beethoven's work.) The popularity was also due to better affordability of instruments like pianos by some middle class Americans... whereas harpsicords could only be afforded by the wealthy in Colonial American society. And... as you indicated earlier, the fiddle was even more affordable as an instrument to a larger segement of the Jacksonian American population.

The fact that the Kinzies had a piano and desired to bring it with them speaks to their social status (or at least their social connectivity) prior to their western sojourn.

Bob.

[Chris Gordy]

The Square Grand Piano is another popular item throughout the nineteenth century which is smaller than the stereotypical piano and is easy to move about. There are some great depictions of these in:

Low, Betty-Bright and Jacqueline Hinsley, Sophie du Pont, A Young Lady in America; Sketches, Diaries, & Letters 1823-1833, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1987.

Mingay, Gordon, Mrs. Hurst Dancing & Other Scenes from Regency Life 1812-1823, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1981.

These are some great reference pieces which also show original sketches of everyday life as well as some evening meal scenes. (though the scenes and settings for these meals are set in a more upper-middle class to upper class setting) My favorite sketch is from the works of Sophie du Pont. In this one, from April 1831, shows her Uncle Charles playing a one-man band in the parlor: seated at the piano while playing a guitar, striking a drum on the floor with his foot and smoking a cigar.
Okay . . . back to the Square Grand Piano. There is a great original Square Grand in the Grant Home of Galena. Though that particular piece is not original to the home, it did come from another historic home in Galena. The music store in Galena advertises having Square Grand Pianos in the local paper.

[Marge Smith]

I thought I had a book on the history of pianos, but can not locate it now.

I was surprised that Mrs. Kinzie used the word "piano" and not "pianoforte". But my history is probably out-of-whack. Beethoven composed for the pianoforte which I don't believe has all 88 keys. I assume Mrs. Kinzie's didn't either.

I was kidding about the harpsichord. I like hearing Bach and Scarletti played on that instrument. There is a record of Beethoven Sonatas played on the pianoforte, I didn't care for it, it sounds dull.

I was a piano major in school, but have forgotten much.

Marge

[Chris Gordy]

For you music lovers - - -
Another great work to look at the popularity of certain musical instruments in the nineteenth century is:

Aldrich, Elizabeth. From the Ballroom to Hell; Grace and Folly in Nineteenth-Century Dance, Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1991.

Aldrich looks at a lot of mid to late 19th century music and dance in this work. However, she makes great use of original books of music and instruction from the early nineteenth century.

[Robert Braun]

Tell me... does Ms. Aldrich review that horrid dance just coming in from Europe, and reported on by Sir Charles Augustus Murray in his Travels in North America--the valse?

I understand that men and women actually dance as COUPLES in this new modern dance!

Simply scandalous!

[Chris Gordy]

Indeed she does, Mr. Braun! Mrs. Aldrich goes into great detail as to the history of this dance and includes some great references on both sides of the issue which I will place here for your reading.

P129."'The musicians ought to be instructed (as the necessity for it frequently occurs) to play the waltzes tenderly and distincly, laying the emphasis on the first note of each bar, which more clearly marks the time for the dancers, and enable them, in performing the several movements, to keep a regular pace with the music; without such attention, the beauty and effect altogether will be completely destroyed, and the dancers be disappointed of the enjoyment of that pleasure otherwise to be derived.'
Thomas Wilson
A Description of the Correct Method of Waltzing
(London, 1816), lvi"

P.154-55. "But with regard to the lately-introduced German waltz, I cannot speak so favourable. I must agree with Goethe, when writing of the national dance of this country, 'that none but husbands and wives can with any propriety be partners in the waltz.'
There is something in the close approximation of persons, in the attitudes, and in the motion, which ill agrees with the delicacy of woman, should she be placed in such a situation with any other man than the most intimate connexion she can have in life. Indeed, I have often heard men of no very over-strained feeling say, 'that there are very few women in the world with whom they could bear to dance the german waltz.'
The Mirror of the Graces,
By a Lady of Dinstinction
(New York, 1813), 177.


The waltz is a dance of quite too loose a character, and unmarried ladies should refrain from it altogether, both in public and private; very young married ladies, however, may be allowed to waltz in private balls, if it is very seldom, and with persons of their acquaintance. It is indespensable for them to acquit themselves with dignity and modesty.
Mme. Cenlart,
The Gentleman and Lady's Book
(Boston, 1833), 187"

[Rusty Ayers]

Does anyone have information on when the Melodeon was introduced to America? We happen to have a mid-19th-century Melodeon that Diane bought on eBay more than a year ago. Actually, I would have to call it a semi-melodeon because it's still in its shipping crate in pieces, sitting in our front room. Perhaps I'll cover it with a counterpane and use it for furniture as Juliet Kinzie did. It's not much good for anything else at this point, since the seller neglected to tell us that one of the legs was missing. I need to find a good lathe-turner who can craft a really big table leg. And I can assure you, having moved the thing more than once, that even though a melodeon is significantly smaller than a pianoforte, neither of them can be considered portable. At least I wasn't having the thing shipped to Australia! Maybe we can do a re-make of "The Piano" set in the Lead Region.