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Collection Home Sweet Home: Life in Nineteenth-Century Ohio

Parlor Music

[Power of music]. James Queen, artist, c1872. Print and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Americans took great delight in making music together by performing in instrumental and vocal ensembles, and by attending musical soirees, sing-alongs, and other interactive musical events. Families entertained themselves in the home by making music together. In Ohio, as elsewhere, parlor music -- that genre of music created primarily for music-making in the home -- became very fashionable as increased importance was placed on musical proficiency as a hallmark of good taste and moral reputability. Musical prowess, particularly keyboard playing, was highly prized, and a commonly-held value was that a proper education was incomplete without the study of music. Parlor music repertoire frequently included sentimental songs about romantic and maternal love, odes and tributes to historical figures and leaders of the day, and patriotic songs.

Following the Civil War, parlor organs, also known as reed organs and cabinet organs, became particularly popular in American homes. Keen to please their consumers, organ manufacturers created musical instruments in consonance with Victorian aesthetics, as evidenced by this statement from The Great Industries of the United States (1872) describing instruments from the Mason & Hamlin Organ Company: "They are chastely elegant specimens of furniture, worthy of a place in the most sumptuously furnished apartment."

Recordings and Sheet Music

Cover of Louisville March and Quick-Step
Louisville March & Quick-Step, attributed to W. C. Peters; from Drennon polka quadrilles. Baltimore: W. C. Peters, 1849

While Peters is best known as the first publisher of Stephen Foster’s songs, he also composed and arranged music. He published and attributed to himself a piano arrangement of "Louisville March & Quickstep," a popular piece of the time. (Although there is no reason to believe that Peters did not compose the arrangement, attributions on sheet music of the time are notoriously unreliable.)

Cover of Polka Quadrilles
The Frankfurt Belle, by W. C. Peters; from Drennon polka quadrilles. Baltimore: W. C. Peters, 1849.

Peters also compiled or composed The Drennon Polka Quadrilles, to which "The Frankfurt Belle" belongs. Other pieces in that set include "The Madison Belle," "The Cincinnati Belle," "The Louisville Belle," "The Nachitoches Belle," and "The Medical Student."

Cover of Galop
Galop, by James R. Murray; from Murray's Method for the Cabinet Organ (Cincinnati, 1882).

The "Galop," presented here on piano, is a romping evocation of the town brass band or the dance hall with its solitary accordion or small orchestra. It was originally composed for the reed organ, which in the mid-nineteenth century was a popular and inexpensive substitute for the pipe organ. The popularity of the reed organ at the time is attested by the number of extant instruments and the amount of music written for them.

Cover of Old Rosin the Bow
Old Rosin the Bow, with variations, by William C. Peters. Boston: Ditson & Co., Oliver, 1880.

Arranged by William C. Peters for piano, "Old Rosin the Bow" was a very popular air in the early 1800s. An Irish folk song, the lyrics speak of a seasoned drinker to whom many raise the glass in tribute even after his death.

Learn More About It

Stanley, Sadie, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. New York: Grove, 2001. ML 100 .N48 2001

Wetzel, Richard D., Oh! sing no more that gentle song : the musical life and times of William Cumming Peters (1805-66). Warren, Mich. : Harmonie Park Press, 2000. ML427.P33W48 2000