Composers of Color of Nineteenth-Century New Orleans: The History behind the Music

Perhaps the least known of the many kinds of music that New Orleans has produced is its nineteenth-century popular sheet music. Essentially genteel entertainment music on the European model, it is now sometimes called "concert" music, but a person was as likely to encounter this music in the theater as in the concert hall. Likewise, the term "salon" music does not always apply, because the dance music frequently was heard in the ballroom.