"Easily apprehended by non-specialists; there is no disciplinary jargon. Readers can engage in subjects as far-ranging as MSnnerchsre, instrument manufacturing, black women singers, opera, and town bands, and they can traverse the country from New England to Los Angeles, with stops in New York, Pennsylvania, New Orleans, Kentucky, and Indianapolis. The essays in this collection . . . champion the unique voice that is America." -- Notes
Why American Art Music Arrived First in New England, Nicholas Tawa * Musical Life in Turn-of-the-Century Indianapolis, Suzanne Snyder * Diaries of William Steinway and New York Musical Life, 1861-1871, Edwin M. Good * Concert Singers, Prima Donnas, and Entertainers: The Changing Status of Black Women Vocalists in 19th-Century America, Thomas L. Riis * When Cairo Met Main Street: Little Egypt, Salome Dancers, and the World's Fairs of 1893 and 1904, Charles Kennedy * Promoting the Local Product: Sherman and Hyde's Review and the San Francisco Musical Press of 1874 * Inventing Tradition: Symphony and Opera in Progressive-era Los Angeles, Catherine P. Smith * Somewhere Between Beer and Wagner: The MSnnershsre Societies of New Orleans and New York City, Mary Sue Morrow * Mrs. Poliphar at the Opera: Satire, Idealism, and Cultural Authority in Post-Civil War New York, Karen Ahlquist * Jacob Guth in Montrose Band: A Town Band in Central Pennsylvania, April-August 1889, Kenneth Kreitner * Music in Lancaster, Kentucky, 1885-1910: Local Talent, Traveling Tours, and the Opera House, Ben Arnold * Operettas of Charles Hutchison Gabriel, Clyde W. Brockett * Missing Title Page: Dvorak and the American National Song, John C. Tibbetts