“Containing the elementary principles of music, together with examples and lessons, … to which is added a choice collection of pieces, numbering over fifty popular dances, polkas, melodies, &c. &c., many of which have never before been published. Composed and arranged expressly for this work.”
Category: Sources
Allen &c.: Slave Songs of the United States (1867)
“The musical capacity of the negro race has been recognized for so many years that it is hard to explain why no systematic effort has hitherto been made to collect and preserve their melodies…”
Buckley: Banjo Guide (1868)
“Containing the Elementary Principles of Music, Together with New, Easy, and Progressive Exercises, and a Great Variety of Songs, Dances, and Beautiful Melodies, Many of Them Never Before Published.”
UCSB: Early 20th Century Recordings
UCSB’s Edison wax cylinder collection provides a great many early recordings from the 1890s and 1900s, which is as close as modern recorded music gets to the 1860s*.
Library of Congress: “America Singing: 19th Century Song Sheets”
“For most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets….”
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (Willis, 1850s?)
Wallis Willis created the song “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” sometime before 1862; we like to pair it with this 1862 photograph by Concord, NH’s own H.P Moore.
The Hardtacks 