Music in rural New England family and community life, 1870-1940 - Jennifer C Post

Before 1940, residents in rural New England communities listened to and performed music in limited social spheres - the home, neighborhood, village, or work place. Few opportunities existed at that time to bring new music into the community or to share local music more widely. When commerce and the media began to dominate the music scene with the phonograph and, later, the radio, exchanges among musicians and fans transcended the local and broadened spheres of influence and radically altered the musical landscape.;Drawing upon interviews and archival primary source materials, this book presents new insights into the musical practices and traditions of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century rural Northern New England - a context that includes traditional ballads and hymns and, surprisingly, popular songs and commercial dance music. Jennifer C. Post lets the voices of ordinary people - the participants - tell us about their music and cultural history. Their stories are infused with issues of concern to ethnomusicologists, historians, and social scientists about landscape and community, gendered expression, imagined traditions, and historical representation.