{"id":4344,"date":"2019-10-17T08:27:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T13:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4344"},"modified":"2019-12-10T18:09:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T00:09:16","slug":"music-for-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/17\/music-for-the-masses\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Music for the Masses\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1897, the Chicago Book and News Company<\/em> published a volume of the National Home and Music Journal<\/em>, a periodical that published music that was thought to embody elements of the national identity so well that they deemed it to be \u2018Music for the Masses.\u2019 From taking a look at the types of music they chose to include in these journals, we get an insider scoop into what was found to be “Americanness” in music.<\/p>\n

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The journal starts off exactly as we might expect, with The Yankee Tourist <\/em>by H.S. Line and F.S Colburn. There aren\u2019t any recordings available for this song, but one can imagine how it goes from the title. It follows a quarter note-eighth note pattern in 6\/8 time, giving the piece a natural lilt.<\/p>\n

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The publisher then throws something interesting into this collection of \u2018Music for the Masses\u2019… a Beethoven piano piece. I hate to point out the obvious here, but Beethoven was not American. He was German. This inclusion shows that in 1897, a German piece of music was considered to be just as American as a piece like The Yankee Tourist.<\/em><\/p>\n