The Ballad and Parlor Music

The Ballad and Parlor Music

The most popular form of music was the ballad for majority of the 19th century. A ballad is a song that tells a story which can be both fact or fiction as long as it has a central narrative. Some are about famous battles through out history, famous heroes or villains, or some can even be a tale of romance and adventure. These ballads were spread through out the United States by travelers and then were pasted down through families from generation to generation. At first they were only spread orally and then later in the century they began to be written down and published. Ballads were published as broadsides at the time; which are single sheets with print on only one side that can be easily distributed. When a New England publisher began printing and selling broadsides of three hundred different English and American songs in 1814, it quickly caught on in other cities and became very popular. Having these broadside ballads it made it easier for for American citizens to know and memorize the words to these both old and new songs.

As the middle class grew in the United States during the nineteenth century, so did the taste in music. As more and more people were able to afford a piano, then called a painoforte, less people were drawn to the common fiddle which were commonly used in ballads. They liked the piano better and the songs that came with it. Musical gatherings became small parties in the parlor of homes where families and guests would gather around and listen to young women sing parlor music accompanied by the piano. Parlor music is far more polished and romantic than a ballad. They were more formally composed and sold in sheet music rather than in broadsides. Parlor music became the most popular form of music by the late 19th century.

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"Popular Music in 19th-Century America: From Broadside Ballads to the Birth of the Blues." American History. Web. 03 Jan. 2010. <http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/popular_music_in_19thcentury_america>