Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

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.

1128546517
Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

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.

59.99 In Stock
Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

by Candace Bailey
Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

Charleston Belles Abroad: The Music Collections of Harriett Lowndes, Henrietta Aiken, and Louisa Rebecca McCord

by Candace Bailey

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781611179576
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Publication date: 02/18/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
File size: 15 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Candace Bailey is a professor in the Music Department at North Carolina Central University in Durham. She received her master's and Ph.D. in musicology from Duke University. Her other books include Music and the Southern Belle: From Accomplished Lady to Confederate Composer and Seventeenth-Century British Keyboard Sources.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Editorial Notes xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1

1 The Lowndes Family and Harriet's Music Collection 21

2 Vocal Music in English 25

3 Vocal Music in French 45

4 French Connections 74

5 Harriet Lowndes Aiken's Opera Collection 79

Part 2

6 The Aiken Family and Henrietta's Music Collection 87

7 Henrietta's Earliest Music and First European Journey 106

8 Henrietta's Music, 1850-1857 120

9 After 1857: Paris (again), Germany, and Switzerland 131

10 Other Music That Might Have Belonged to Henrietta 143

Part 3

11 The McCord Family 155

12 Louisa Rebecca's Antebellum Music Collection 162

13 Europe in 1858-1859 173

14 The Civil War and Beyond 191

Conclusion 209

Appendix A Contents of Related Binder's Volume 221

Appendix B Manuscript Materials in the Hand of Domenico Altrocchi 233

Appendix C List of Composers and Performers 235

Notes 241

Bibliography 273

Index 287

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In her meticulously researched new study, Candace Bailey explores women's lives through the music they performed and owned. She traces local and regional networks of the antebellum South, illuminating connections with wider American and European elite culture. Both broad conventions and the voices of individual women emerge in a fascinating picture of social identity shaped and expressed through music.

— Jeanice Brooks, University of Southampton

Candace Bailey provides fascinating historical insight of great value to scholars of the antebellum South. Her careful examination of music books owned by three upper-class Southern women reveals much about them, their families, and their communities and clearly illustrates the importance of music in the antebellum South and the wealth of information revealed by the study of musical artifacts.

— Katherine K. Preston, past president, Society for American Music

Deftly navigating between the disciplines of southern studies, women's history, and musicology, Bailey has created a meaningful and readable tour through a morass of silent papers. Charleston Belles Abroad recovers a lost conversation about music, culture, and society in an engaging manner deserving of emulation.

— Nicholas Butler, historian, Charleston County Public Library

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