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Title: Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music Cultures

Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music Cultures

by Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch (Volume editor) Birger Petersen (Volume editor) Nico Schüler (Volume editor)
©2026 Edited Collection 258 Pages
The Arts
Series: Methodology of Music Research, Volume 13

Summary

This volume uncovers the rich yet largely overlooked musical worlds of the late nineteenth century, moving beyond established canons to explore everyday practices in homes, schools, churches, theaters, and public spaces. Bringing together transatlantic perspectives from the United States and the German Empire, it reveals how amateur music-making, popular entertainment, minority cultures, and evolving music markets shaped diverse musical lives. By rethinking traditional historiography, the book draws attention to hidden repertoires and social contexts, highlighting the roles of education, urban culture, and networks of performance. It emphasizes cultural inquiry and develops new methodological approaches to studying marginalized practices. Through interdisciplinary dialogue and case studies, it demonstrates how these "invisible" musical cultures were essential to the formation of modern musical life.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Table of Contents
  • Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music (Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch, Birger Petersen and Nico Schüler)
  • Repertoire and Programming at the Leipzig Conservatory: The Transconti-nental Impact on the United States and Its First Conservatories of Music (Joanna Pepple)
  • George W. Chadwick and German Music Theory Traditions (Birger Petersen)
  • The Classical Training of Early African American Jazz Musicians: Musical Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries and its Influence on Early Jazz (Philipp Teriete)
  • Networks of Black Artists in Minstrel and Jubilee Ensembles in the US in the Late 19th Century (Nico Schüler)
  • Recreation through Music: Clubs, Amateurs and Professionals in US-American Banjo, Guitar and Mandolin Culture (Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch)
  • On Nineteenth-Century ›Musicosmopolitanism‹: Tracing the Publishing Entrepreneur Julius Schuberth (1804–1875) (Frederic von Vlahovits)
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: Imagining the Middle Ages in the Music Histories of the Long Nineteenth Century (Marie Sumner Lott)
  • Non-Western Music in Hugo Kaun’s Symphonic Poem Hiawatha (Immanuel Ott)
  • The Emergence of Peyotism in Indian Territory in the Late 1800s (Paula J. Conlon)
  • Resurrecting the Past: Music, Culture, and Indigeneity in the Music of Jeremy Dutcher (Mita Banerjee)

Table of Contents

  1. Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch, Birger Petersen and Nico Schüler Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music

  2. Joanna Pepple Repertoire and Programming at the Leipzig Conservatory: The Transconti-nental Impact on the United States and Its First Conservatories of Music

  3. Birger Petersen George W. Chadwick and German Music Theory Traditions

  4. Philipp Teriete The Classical Training of Early African American Jazz Musicians: Musical Education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries and its Influence on Early Jazz

  5. Nico Schüler Networks of Black Artists in Minstrel and Jubilee Ensembles in the US in the Late 19th Century

  6. Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch Recreation through Music: Clubs, Amateurs and Professionals in US-American Banjo, Guitar and Mandolin Culture

  7. Frederic von Vlahovits On Nineteenth-Century ›Musicosmopolitanism‹: Tracing the Publishing Entrepreneur Julius Schuberth (1804–1875)

  8. Marie Sumner Lott Hidden in Plain Sight: Imagining the Middle Ages in the Music Histories of the Long Nineteenth Century

  9. Immanuel Ott Non-Western Music in Hugo Kaun’s Symphonic Poem Hiawatha

  10. Paula J. Conlon The Emergence of Peyotism in Indian Territory in the Late 1800s

  11. Mita Banerjee Resurrecting the Past: Music, Culture, and Indigeneity in the Music of Jeremy Dutcher

Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch, Birger Petersen and Nico Schüler

Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music

Introduction

This publication will focus on hidden musical cultures in the late 19th century that have generally received little attention in musicological and music-theoretical research: everyday musical practices in family and school, education and concert life, theater and church, as well as in public spaces in general, folk music or musical practices of ethnic minorities, popular music and its networks. The aim is not only to gain insights into aspects of national phenomena in the United States of America after the Civil War and in the German Empire, but also to juxtapose them or to consider them together. Urban history and culture(s) in the late 19th century will be considered just as intensively as considerations of the social situation of musicians and listeners as well as regional reference points of the time.

The prerequisites for the different musical cultures in the German Empire and the US include a specific approach to musical education. On the one hand, this is characterized, for example, by a humanistic ideal of education, an enlightened view of humanity, the mastery of several languages, the knowledge of works of art, and, most importantly, an understanding of music that included active music-making.1 On the other hand, it can be characterized by its dependence on the integration of different social groups – meaning lower social classes as well as minorities – and by the changing structures for girls and women. The European aristocracy and musical institutions provided a case study, whilst the open and changing nature of the music market and the transformation of religious musical cultures were influential factors – albeit not in the way predicted by Ignaz Mosel in 1808:

Here, the art of music works the miracle every day that was otherwise only attributed to love: it makes the classes equal. Nobles and commoners, princes and their vassals, superiors and their inferiors sit together at the same desk and forget the disharmony of their class over the harmony of the notes.2

With a few exceptions, such as Martin Rempe,3 purely social-historical observations of the period generally lack a discussion of music.4 The fact that the educated middle classes in the German-speaking world only developed their own musical culture in the late 18th century – and thus much later than in England or France – is due to the political upheavals of the time: According to Barbara Boisits, its establishment in the ›Vormärz‹ period can be seen both as compensation for a lack of political co-determination and as a consequence of an increasing separation of work and leisure life.5

In contrast, the establishment of a modern music business came to the fore in the United States, which in the late 19th century was strongly influenced by ›show business‹ in addition to concerts and opera performances of European music. This also results in the specific repertoire, which – in addition to the aspect of an autonomous art relevant to the musical aesthetics of the period in question – reveals a focus on dance and entertainment music.6 The socio-historical spectrum of musical practices of a bourgeois music culture is conceivably broad, ranging from private spheres to more or less formal networks and stable institutions. By the time covered in this publication, concerts and concert series as well as special forms of musical salons had become established,7 giving both professional and amateur musicians the opportunity to perform in front of diverse audiences. Music societies, concert halls, theaters and choirs, which were founded at the end of the 18th century and then increasingly in the 19th century, were of great importance for everyday music-making, offering a concrete temporal, social and physical space for the shared experience of sound.8 The dissemination of repertoire and decisive steps towards the formation of canons initially took place in this context in the 19th century, as well as in the private sphere,9 but also to an extent that should not be underestimated at extraordinary events such as music festivals and festivals.10

In terms of social history, the bourgeois society of the late 19th century was not least a ›commercial society‹, which is why particular attention should be paid to the significance of the music market and its preconditions. The overall question is whether and how the bourgeois music culture of the 19th century fits into the picture of a ›bourgeois modernity‹ – especially against the background of those previously unexplored musical worlds in which the proverbial ›little man‹ also increasingly participated.11 US-American music culture in the second half of the 19th century is characterized by social injustices towards indigenous peoples as well as African-Americans and other minorities, by the establishment of popular music cultures, an influential church music life and also by the influence of European folk and art music.12 These developments remain the subject of limited scholarly attention, and the extent to which they are interconnected remains to be fully explored.

The exploration of hidden musical cultures of the late 19th century constitutes the central axis of this publication. These cultures are not treated merely as a means to illuminate broader music-historical narratives, but rather as autonomous and genuine objects of scholarly inquiry. The aim is to reassess prevailing historiographical models and to interrogate the formation of music-aesthetic paradigms that emerged during this period. At the core of this undertaking lies the ambition to develop new methodological pathways for examining those musical practices and cultural formations that have largely eluded traditional musicological attention – primarily because they exist beyond the established canon(s) of music and its associated institutions.13 In this context, the intensified critical reflection on notions of the canon and the concept of the musical work leads to a re-evaluation of the repertoire itself – not only in terms of the internal weighting of genres, but also regarding the broader spectrum spanning from art music to popular music, including repertories that have so far remained marginal or entirely neglected in scholarly discourse.

This reconceptualization invites a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of musical life at the fin de siècle and aligns with recent calls for a more culturally informed music historiography. Crucially, the study brings diverse subfields of musicological research into a productive dialogue, with musical analysis occupying a pivotal position. Here, analysis functions not only as a tool of formal inquiry, but as a broader methodological and epistemological framework – one that allows for a direct, discursive engagement with the music itself. This analytical approach, in turn, offers significant potential for contributions to the social and cultural history of the 19th century from a cultural studies perspective. Two dedicated parts will illuminate aspects of music education, creative practices and aesthetic thinking of composers, performers, and audiences in the late 19th century, with particular focus on the German Empire and the United States. Ten case studies from across the musicological spectrum intersect in dialogue, revealing the crucial role that hidden and marginalised musical subcultures played in shaping the diverse musical landscapes of the late 19th century.14

Music Education Between Art, Science and Popular Culture

From the mid-19th century onwards, music education initiatives for amateurs began to emerge across various levels, encompassing both vocal and instrumental instruction. In the German Empire, these developments were closely intertwined with the training of church musicians, particularly within the framework of teacher education – an area marked by significant regional variation. One illustrative case is the establishment of teacher training colleges, where the role of music in the education of elementary school teachers in the late 19th century was shaped less by its function as a mediator between religious practice and communal life, and more by the professional profile of the so-called ›teacher-organist‹. This figure was expected to fulfil both the pedagogical duties of elementary instruction and the musical demands of Sunday church services. While recent studies have begun to explore this phenomenon in Bavaria,15 other German-speaking regions, as well as the overarching regulatory structures of teacher training in the final third of the century, remain insufficiently investigated. This section of the volume contributes to this under-researched field by examining not only the institutionalized training of professional music educators, but also forms of amateur music education that have thus far received little attention. Beyond the widely studied choral movements of the period,16 these less formalised modes of musical instruction reflect broader patterns of cultural participation and social formation – yet they remain largely absent from the historiography of 19th-century music education.

Structures of Music-Making in Private, Semi-Public and Public Spaces

The late 19th century represents a particularly dynamic phase in the formation of musical practices and infrastructures that, while often operating beneath the surface of established historiography, played a vital role in shaping the period’s musical life. These include, among others, the growing significance of amateur music-making in both the German Empire and the United States, the activities of touring ensembles – ranging from African-American groups to pseudo-Hispanic performers – in various contexts of musical entertainment, and the reception of (popular) music theatre in private and semi-public spheres. Formats such as paper theatres or performances by brass bands in public and semi-public settings exemplify the heterogeneity and reach of these largely overlooked musical cultures.17 For example, music lovers pursued the following goals with their »numerous associations that emerged all over the world of the type of the Academy of Ancient Music (London 1710), the Concert spirituel (Paris 1725), the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Vienna 1812)«18

aims: Preservation of choirs and orchestras, cultivation of amateur music, improvement of music teaching, support of professional musicians. Following the tradition of music-loving amateurs who had been active for centuries in villages and town houses, in churches and in courtly circles, sometimes in connection with the organization of music festivals, such associations could count on the participation of like-minded people and the support of municipal authorities and sponsors.19

Despite the often fragmentary and uneven source situation, traces of these musical structures can be identified in a variety of contexts. One such area is the broad spectrum of sheet music publications circulating in both the German Empire and the United States during the late 19th century. Compositions and arrangements for instruments and instrumental combinations outside the standard orchestral framework – such as the zither, mandolin, or bandoneon – appear alongside forms of piano literature that may, at first glance, seem conventional. Yet embedded within these repertoires are layers of reception history that point to influences ranging from minstrelsy to operatic and concert traditions, often concealed beneath seemingly innocuous musical surfaces.

The aim of this volume is to shed light on musical worlds that have hitherto received limited scholarly attention. While choral music in the German Empire, for example, remains a relevant subject, it is one that has already been extensively studied. In contrast, comparable instrumental music practices – beyond the well-documented amateur symphony orchestras – have largely remained in the shadows and warrant closer examination. Similarly, in post-war America, regional and immigrant music cultures, such as those documented among European-American communities in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee and the Ozark Mountains of Stone County, Arkansas, have begun to attract research interest.20 Yet the creative and performative contributions of musicians of African-American or Hispanic descent continue to be insufficiently explored.

The contributions in this volume are based on a conference held as part of the project »Virtual Music Teaching in Art and Science« at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) in cooperation with Texas State University (USA) on November 29 and 30, 2021, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). We thank all contributors for their support and patience, and especially Amon Sokolski for his wide-ranging assistance and editorial help.

References

  1. [Acquavella-]Rauch, Stefanie, »Kanonbildung, Musikgeschichtsschreibung und Klangästhetik fernab des mainstream – oder: von der ›Befreiung‹ der Mandoline«, in: Phoibos – Zeitschrift für Zupfmusik 13/1 (2013), pp. 43–77.

  2. Acquavella-Rauch, Stefanie, »›Öffentliches Privates‹: Intelligenzblätter als Zugangsmöglichkeiten zu unbekannten musikalischen Lebenswelten im 18. Jahrhundert«, in: Wolfgang Auhagen & Wolfgang Hirschmann, eds., Beitragsarchiv zur Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung Halle/Saale 2015 – »Musikwissenschaft: die Teildisziplinen im Dialog« (https://schott-campus.com/gfmjahrestagung-2015), Mainz 2016, https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:101:1-201609063249.

  3. Acquavella-Rauch, Stefanie, »Das ›Papiertheater‹ und seine Verlage: ein Beitrag zur Terminologie und Geschichte eines einst verbreiteten Mediums«, in: Die Tonkunst 13/4 (2019), pp. 470–480.

  4. Ballstaedt, Andreas & Tobias Widmaier, Salonmusik. Zur Geschichte und Funktion einer bürgerlichen Musikpraxis, Stuttgart 1989.

  5. Bebermeier, Carola, Clemens Kreutzfeldt, & Melanie Unseld (eds.), Music Across the Ocean – Cultural Mobility in the Transatlantic Region, 1800–1950, Bielefeld 2024 (= Vernetzen – bewegen – verorten. Kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven 5).

  6. Böeker, Hans Erich, Patrice Veit & and Michael Werner, eds., Organisateurs et formes d’organisation du concert en Europe 1700–1920: Institutionnalisation et pratiques (= Musical Life in Europe 1600– 1900. Circulation, Institutions, Representations 11), Berlin 2008.

  7. Böeker, Hans Erich, Veit, Patrice & Werner, Michael, eds., Espaces et lieux de concert en Europe 1700– 1920 (= Musical Life in Europe 1600–1900. Circulation, Institutions, Representations 12), Berlin 2008.

  8. Boisits, Barbara, »Bürgerliche Musikkultur«, in: Österreichisches Musiklexikon online, www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_B/Buergerliche_Musikkultur.xml, [2002].

  9. Brown, Thomas J., ed., Reconstructions: New Perspectives on Postbellum America, New York 2006.

  10. Brusniak, Friedhelm, Anfänge des Laienchorwesens in Bayerisch-Schwaben. Musik- und sozialgeschichtliche Studien, Augsburg 1997.

  11. Brusniak, Friedhelm & Klenke, Dietmar, eds., Volksschullehrer und außerschulische Musikkultur. Tagungsbericht Feuchtwangen 1997, Augsburg 1998.

  12. Clayton, Martin, Herbert, Trevor & Middleton, Richard, eds., The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, London 22012.

  13. Conway, Cecilia, African Banjo Echoes in Appalachia, Knoxville, TN 1995.

  14. Edmondson, Jacqueline, ed., Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories that Shaped Our Culture, Santa Barbara, CA 2013.

  15. Emans, Reinmar & Wendt, Matthias, eds., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Konzerts. Festschrift Siegfried Kross zum 60. Geburtstag, Bonn 1990.

  16. Fellinger, Imogen, »Die Begriffe ›Salon‹ und ›Salonmusik‹ in der Musikanschauung des 19. Jahrhunderts«, in: Carl Dahlhaus, ed., Studien zur Trivialmusik des 19. Jahrhunderts (= Studien zur Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts 8), Regensburg 1967, pp. 131–141.

Details

Pages
258
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9783631953549
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631953556
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631868690
DOI
10.3726/b23824
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (July)
Keywords
hidden musical cultures 19th-century music transatlantic studies music history cultural history popular music minority cultures amateur music-making music education canon critique music analysis historiography
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2026. 258 pp., 17 fig. col., 48 fig. b/w, 4 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch (Volume editor) Birger Petersen (Volume editor) Nico Schüler (Volume editor)

Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch is Professor of Musicology at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Her research areas include creative processes, musical practices from the 18th to the 21st century and methods of music research. Birger Petersen is Professor of Music Theory at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. His work focuses on the history of music theory, organ music and contemporary music. Nico Schüler is University Distinguished Professor of Music Theory and Musicology at Texas State University. His main research interests are interdisciplinary aspects of 19th through 21st century musics and computational music research.

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Title: Transatlantic Perspectives on Hidden Late 19th Century Music Cultures