Music for all: amateur piano making in antebellum America
Date
2020
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In rural antebellum America, a curious convergence of piano production and exuberant creativity inspired backcountry craftsman with little to no formal training in musical instrument making to create their own keyboard instruments. Each amateur-made instrument deviates from the norm, yet displays clear influence from standard piano forms and showcases creative solutions to the intricate mechanisms that comprise some of the most complex objects extant in the early nineteenth century. Working in more rural regions, the self-taught craftsmen were able to freely explore the possibilities of piano making in ways that would prove difficult in urban centers. ☐ Fusing the cosmopolitan customs of Western art music with the intersection of a wide variety of cultural traditions, self-taught makers of the inland South benefitted from the spread of people, materials, and ideas along the Great Wagon Road. Coupled with the diffusion of parlor culture, itinerant musicians, and amateur players, amateur-made instruments helped contribute to the formation of new and distinct soundscapes across the backcountry. Drawing upon surviving instruments and primary source materials, this thesis examines a spectrum of amateur-made pianos created along the Great Wagon Road and reconstructs the musical and craft environments that shaped amateur instrument making and traditions of performance.
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Keywords
American music, American South, Cabinetmaking, Great Wagon Road, Nineteenth century, Piano