Music That Defined History: the American Civil War

As a new series on this blog, Music that Defined History will look at how music influenced decisions that have shaped our world. For the first instalment, a brief overview of music of the American Civil War, mostly inspired by the Ken Burns: Civil War documentary I've recently been watching.
We learn as kids in school that 2% of the American population, approximately 600,000 people, died in the American Civil War. We know the atrocities that we committed against each other in the name of two very different definitions of freedom. For one side, freedom for all, for the other, the freedom to carry on as they'd done for 300 years.

Musicologists estimate that over 10,000 songs were composed during the Civil War, likely due to the increasing affordability of pianos, which most middle-class families were able to afford by the mid 1850's. Stephen C. Foster was by far the most successful composer of the era, and was able to compose full-time, leading to smash hits such as "Camptown Races" and "Oh, Susanna," which are still popular folk songs even today.

Americans wanted their musical entertainment during the war to reflect current events and emotions - in 1862, a woman told Louis Moreau Gottschalk, virtuoso Romantic pianist, that his performances were "deficient in charm" and needed to conform to public sentiment. As a result, he wrote a piece in 1863 titled, "The Union," which was received with thunderous applause, and was given a standing ovation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. During the same time period, well-known soprano, Clara Louise Kellogg, convinced her opera house to put on productions of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment (The Daughter of the Regiment), as the military theme was well-received among American opera audiences.

When the war broke out in 1861, musicians joined the ranks of regiments to serve as morale boosters. It has been estimated that nearly 40,000 field musicians were employed by both Union and Confederate armies, most of them under the age of 18. The importance of music in the camps and on the fields was not underestimated: even General Robert E. Lee said in 1864, "I do not believe we can have an army without music."

Union troops favored tunes such as "John Brown's Body," which shares its melody with "Battle Hymn of the Republic," whose words were written by the abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. Both songs use a melody ripped from a spiritual, "Meet Us on Caanan's Shore," which Frederick Douglass noted as having a double meaning: not only were the words spiritual and relating to the Old Testament, they also rang of hope for freedom for slaves.

Musicologists have long chosen to preserve spirituals rather than work-songs. We've all heard "Roll, Jordan Roll," but how many have heard "Pick a Bale of Cotton" or "Ho' Round the Corn?" Musicologists are likely uncomfortable recalling work songs, as they remind us of the atrocities committed against black people during slavery - it's much easier to think that they were happy to sing about the Bible. European and American "visitors" (thieves and kidnappers) noted that work songs were sung in Africa, and suggested that the tradition carried over the Atlantic. Of course they did - you can enslave a people, but you can't erase their identities - though the slave owners certainly tried to.

Both spirituals and work songs relied on a call-and-response format which still heavily influences gospel music today. Two abolitionists from the north, William Francis Allen and his cousin, Charles Pickard Ware, set about notating traditional songs popular among slaves, of which they collected 136 songs, and only 8 were secular. I'd wager a bet that the slaves they copied these songs from didn't see any of those publishing royalties - abolitionists, maybe, but greedy thieves nonetheless.

On a personal note, I have never been more uncomfortable at a concert than attending one by a concert choir a few years back, of which every member was white, and they were singing the spiritual, "No More Auction Block for Me." Maybe stay far away from music that references slavery when everyone singing it benefits from the social norms created by 300+ years of slavery. It's just a thought.

In 1862, the Hutchison family was singing for an audience of Confederate soldiers at a courthouse in Virginia. They performed a song using the text from John Greenleaf Whittier's "We Wait Beneath the Furnace Blast," which is rife with abolitionist sentiment. Their performance almost caused a riot and a duel, and it did cause them to be banned from performing for the troops. Their banishment made the family a sort of musical martyr for the cause, and the song became their most requested tune at concerts.

Confederate troops preferred tunes such as "Dixie," which originated from blackface minstrelsy and had a story of a freed slave longing for their old plantation.

Play "Dixie" for me? No, thanks.

Southern forces also enjoyed "Bonnie Blue Flag," a tribute to their flag which "bears a single star." Undoubtedly, many of you are thinking of this flag:

This is not a Confederate flag. 
Image credit: theforthdistrict.com

The above flag is actually the Virginia battle flag - so please stop getting cheap, ugly tattoos with this flag when you're from somewhere other than Virginia, thinking it means southern pride. It represents the slaughter of thousands of Americans in the name of preserving slavery.

The "Bonnie Blue Flag" refers to this flag, which was popular with deep south states such as Florida, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.

Also not a Confederate flag.
Image credit: peashooter85.com 

For posterity, this is a Confederate flag:

This is a Confederate flag. 
Image credit: gcaggiano.wordpress.com

"Bonnie Blue Flag," also known as " We are a Band of Brothers," stole its melody from across the Atlantic, from a song titled, "Irish Jaunting Car."

Many sentimental ballads were marketed to young women and suggested that men who did not enlist were unworthy of their affections, like in Alexander Meek's "War Song," popular in the south. It is no mystery that these ballads were popular - by the end of the war, Confederate forces were desperate for soldiers, going to far as to enlist 14 year old boys and hunt down deserters.

The military band, who played arrangements by Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, popularized the genre and the ensemble, and paved the way for John Phillip Sousa to make marching bands a staple in high schools and colleges across the United States.

So there you have it - a very condensed idea of the music of the American Civil War. Tune in next time, for more Music that Defined History.