Charleston Belles Abroad

Candace Bailey

Description

An examination of the influential role music played in the lives of elite southern women during the antebellum period

In Charleston Belles Abroad, Candace Bailey examines the vital role music collections played in the lives of elite women of Charleston, South Carolina, in the years leading up to the Civil War.

Bailey has studied a substantial archive of music held at several southern libraries, including the library in the historic Aiken-Rhett House, once owned by William Aiken Jr., a successful businessman, rice planter, and governor of South Carolina. Her skill as a musicologist enables her to examine the collections as primary sources for gaining a better understanding of musical culture, instruction, private performance, cultural tourism, and the history of the music industry during this period.

The bound and unbound collections and their associated publications show that international travel and music education in Europe were common among Charleston's elite families. While abroad, the budding musicians purchased the latest music publications and brought them back to Charleston, where they often performed them in private and at semipublic events.

Through a narrow exploration of the collections of these elite women, Bailey exposes the cultural priorities within one of the South's most influential cities and illuminates both the commonalities and discrepancies in the training of young women to enter society. A noteworthy contribution to southern and urban history, Charleston Belles Abroad provides a deep study of music in the context of transatlantic values, interpersonal relationships, and stability and tumult in the South during the nineteenth century.

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Maria Malibran
• Clara Schumann
• Lucia di Lammermoor
• Pauline Viardot
• Adelina Patti
• Giulia Grisi
• Giovanna d'Arco
• Susannah
• Anna Bolena
• The Women
• Social sciences
• Social class
• Woman
• History of classical music traditions
• Maiden's Prayer
• Fanny Kemble
• Kathleen Mavourneen
• Charleston Museum
• The Bohemian Girl
• Live in Charleston
• Multiple signal classification
• La donna del lago
• To Mother
• St. Cecilia Society
• Pauline Viardot-García
• MUSIC
• Women
• HISTORY

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 18 février 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611179576
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

CHARLESTON BELLES ABROAD
CHARLESTON BELLES ABROAD
The Music Collections of Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord
C ANDACE B AILEY

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS
2019 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-956-9 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-957-6 (ebook)
Front cover design by Brock Henderson
To E MMA and G RAHAM
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Editorial Notes
Introduction
PART ONE
1 The Lowndes Family and Harriet s Music Collection
2 Vocal Music in English
3 Vocal Music in French
4 French Connections
5 Harriet Lowndes Aiken s Opera Collection
PART TWO
6 The Aiken Family and Henrietta s Music Collection
7 Henrietta s Earliest Music and First European Journey
8 Henrietta s Music, 1850-1857
9 After 1857: Paris (again), Germany, and Switzerland
10 Other Music That Might Have Belonged to Henrietta
PART THREE
11 The McCord Family
12 Louisa Rebecca s Antebellum Music Collection
13 Europe in 1858-1859
14 The Civil War and Beyond
Conclusion
Appendix A: Contents of Related Binder s Volume
Appendix B: Manuscript Materials in the Hand of Domenico Altrocchi
Appendix C: List of Composers and Performers
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
On spring break in 2003 I had planned to spend a few days doing research in the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston as I began studying women and music in the antebellum South. Finishing earlier than I had expected, I contacted Jennifer Sheetz at the Charleston Museum to inquire if the museum held anything that might be useful to my work. She responded that there might possibly be some items of interest to me there, so I headed down Meeting Street to see them. What I found took me completely by surprise: numerous books and individual pieces of sheet music whose owners were well known in southern history. Jennifer graciously spread some of them out on the floor, on cardboard mats, and allowed me to take some photographs for future use. The books with Louisa McCord on them particularly struck me as important because they ranged from European scores to Confederate imprints to a bound collection of Clementi and Kuhlau. At that time I was able to make only a few notes and photographs, as I had other research appointments in Savannah on this particular journey.
In the intervening years I traveled back to the Charleston Museum several times. Jennifer McCormick presides over the collection, and her help proved invaluable in collecting the data needed for the current study. I continue to be astounded by the music in the Charleston Museum archives. I am unaware of any other single collection that documents the musical experiences of a specific segment of society better than does the one at the Charleston Museum. This book presents information on music from several prominent families in Charleston, but there is more work to be done. The collection includes music that belonged to Harriet Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, Louisa Rebecca McCord, Elizabeth Waties Alston Pringle, Mariane Porcher, Sally Kinloch, Frederika Freddy Knobloch, Elise Rhett, Mary Rhett, and many other Charlestonian women-and this is only one part of the museum s archives.
Acknowledgments
Any project that requires detailed accounts of numerous primary sources depends heavily on the cooperation and assistance of the custodians of archives, and I have been fortunate to work closely with several of these people. First and foremost, my utmost thanks and appreciation extend to Jennifer McCormick, collections manager at the Charleston Museum. She has made this book possible with her unending help and generosity. Her thorough knowledge of materials relating to the families discussed here greatly aided my understanding of context in Charleston society. Karen Brickman Emmons, archivist with the Historic Charleston Foundation, graciously assisted my work with the Aiken-Rhett House, and I appreciate her willingness to work with me while in Charleston and away. Valerie Perry, the Aiken-Rhett House museum manager, provided me with insight into the Aikens and the Rhetts, and I fondly remember discussing the characters of these women with her. Anna Smith of the Charleston Library Society graciously helped by finding and retrieving the books purchased by the Aikens while abroad. Other archivists have made aspects of this book possible, especially those at the South Caroliniana Library in Columbia and those working with the South Carolina Historical Society, who provided much insight in the early stages of this work. The editor and staff of the University of South Carolina Press and the anonymous readers who offered suggestions have contributed to this book and made it better in many ways.
Several scholars gave generously of their time and ideas as I developed this book. Nicholas Butler, whose knowledge of music in Charleston is unrivaled, helped me think through some of the problems presented by the material and by the absence of material. Rebecca Geoffroy-Swinden assisted with my inquiries on French music of the early nineteenth century, and Kristen Turner was always available to assist by answering my questions or pointing me in the right direction. Katherine Preston has been most supportive in various aspects of the scholarly process, offering advice, writing letters, finding time to meet, and assisting me with access to the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Others to whom I owe thanks include Annegret Fauser, Christine de Bellaigue, and David Kennerley for their knowledge of French and English culture of this period. To these and many others I offer my thanks and appreciation.
As just about anyone who has written a book knows, I could not have completed this project without the love and support of my family. Julian Prosser continues to provide encouragement through the intellectual process, and his willingness to traipse around the South in search of collections never wanes. Without my extended family I could not manage, and I especially thank Lisa Tew for the many times she has made me laugh throughout this process. Finally, my children, Emma and Graham, have grown into young adults who never fail to ask about my projects, listen to me talk about successes and failures, and offer hope in times of frustration. This book is for you.
Editorial Notes
Capitalization in English-language publications of the nineteenth century knew no standard: sheet-music title pages include titles in all capitals, a haphazard use of capitals, or a variety of fonts on a single page, rendering the concept of a correct usage impossible. In the main text of Charleston Belles Abroad , titles of songs in English appear in standard, or headline, style capitalization, as do English titles of larger collections and operas. Foreign titles follow the capitalization rules of the given languages. In appendix A and the tables, titles are given as they are found on the actual sheet music.
Determining how to refer to the subjects of a book such as this one often means developing a system whereby people with similar names can be easily distinguished. As a general rule, after their initial introduction most of the South Carolinians mentioned in Charleston Belles Abroad are referred to by their first names only. The main women whose music forms the basis of this study are mentioned by their maiden names and consequently referred to by their first names. Because there were two women named Louisa McCord in the 1850s, I use Mother Louisa and Louisa Rebecca to distinguish them. Referring to composers by last names is in line with writings on music. Full names are given to distinguish those with the same last name-such as Clara Schumann in order to distinguish her from Robert Schumann. A list of pertinent composers full names is provided in appendix C .
Published sheet music sometimes contains more information than is necessary in the tables presented here. If more than one publisher is listed on a given piece of music, only the first is retained in tables of inventories unless there is a compelling reason to include more than one. For example, if a song was published in Boston as well as in New Orleans, the latter, being a southern city, will also appear in the entry. Lists of places where a particular item was sold are also generally not included, except for some Confederate imprints. Much of the music discussed in this book originated with foreign publishers but made its way to Charleston via import dealers in New York and elsewhere. When a piece has the stamp of a seller, it is listed after the publisher information. Dates given in brackets have been found in places other than the sheet music under discussion, such as worldcat.org or libraries from around the world. I have not designated specific libraries as that would be tedious to read for the many titles listed throughout this book. Most have been gleaned from the British Library, the Biblioth que nationale de France, or American university archives.
A brief definition of each music genre encountered in Charleston Belles Abroad is given near the first mention of that genre. Nineteenth-century writers adopted fluid uses of terms, particularly opera, and some clarification yields a better understanding of stylistic changes that occurred throughout the period encompassed in this book. A list of musicians discussed in this work can be found in appendix C , making information on them available but not disruptive of the narrative. Genres in general are not italicized even if they are foreign words or come from foreign terms originally, because their definitions are well known-for example, aria or nocturne. I use scientific pitch no