Bound Music, Unbound Women: The Search for an Identity in the Nineteenth Century (Monographs & Bibliographies in American Music)

During the nineteenth century the households of advantaged Americans were tempered by a widely accepted parlor culture that informed the construction of gender and so many other related aspects of society. Central to this way of life was a set of expectations and behaviors for the American woman—in fact, an ideal. In spite of dangers and excesses well addressed at the time, the cultivation of musical interests by young women was encouraged and admired. Professor Meyer-Frazier has turned her attention to this subject with a thoughtful study of the sheet music collected by girls during their years of education and courtship. A large number of these keepsake volumes of so-called “parlor music” survive and bear witness to the lives of their owners. With the benefit of period literature and recent scholarship Dr. Meyer-Frazier places these documents in context and considers their nature and meaning from a variety of sociological and musicological angles. Nine lucid essays are enhanced by biographical vignettes of representative collectors and by iconographical examples adorning sheet music covers.