Serious Songs of the Early Nineteenth Century. Part 2: The Meaning of the Early Song Melodies

In an earlier article I examined the depictions and deeper meanings of lyrics attached to a large group of serious American songs popular in the decades before the Civil War.' There I attempted to establish the symbolic nature of many lyrics as they traced humankind's passage through life-from an arcadian childhood and innocence to an adult world full of strife, sorrow, and aloneness and finally to a permanent home in Heaven (guided by the spirits of loved ones). In what follows I attempt to do the same for the music, particularly the melodies. To that end, the focus of part 2 of "Serious Songs of the Early Nineteenth Century" centers on what the music in these songs is intended to express and those practices and attitudes that invest this expression. To consider the melodies associated with these song lyrics as mere successions of single tones that are organized rhythmically and designed for strophic repetition at a moderately slow tempo tells us little about their purpose. To maintain that tone is apparently connected to tone, that a simplistic sense of flow and anticipation of the melody does ensue, and that a perception of the start and finish of the phrase and strain is planted firmly in the auditor's mind tells us nothing about any inner significance the music might have had for nineteenth-century Americans. We can agree that a melody will alter the "music" residing