The Creolization of American Culture: William Sidney Mount and the Roots of Blackface Minstrelsy (Music in American Life)

The Creolization of American Culture examines the artworks, letters, sketchbooks, music collection, and biography of the painter William Sidney Mount (1807–1868) as a lens through which to see the multiethnic antebellum world that gave birth to blackface minstrelsy. As a young man living in the multiethnic working-class community of New York's Lower East Side, Mount took part in the black-white musical interchange his paintings depict. An avid musician and tune collector as well as an artist, he was the among the first to depict vernacular fiddlers, banjo players, and dancers precisely and sympathetically. His close observations and meticulous renderings provide rich evidence of performance techniques and class-inflected paths of musical apprenticeship that connected white and black practitioners. Looking closely at the bodies and instruments Mount depicts in his paintings as well as other ephemera, Christopher J. Smith traces the performance practices of African American and Anglo-European music-and-dance traditions while recovering the sounds of that world. Further, Smith uses Mount's depictions of black and white music-making to open up fresh perspectives on cross-ethnic cultural transference in Northern and urban contexts, showing how rivers, waterfronts, and other sites of interracial interaction shaped musical practices by transporting musical culture from the South to the North and back. The "Africanization" of Anglo-Celtic tunes created minstrelsy's musical "creole synthesis," a body of melodic and rhythmic vocabularies, repertoires, tunes, and musical techniques that became the foundation of American popular music. Reading Mount's renderings of black and white musicians against a background of historical sites and practices of cross-racial interaction, Smith offers a sophisticated interrogation and reinterpretation of minstrelsy, significantly broadening historical views of black-white musical exchange.| Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1. Recovering the Creole Synthesis 2. The Creole Synthesis in the New World 3. Long Island and the Lower East Side 4. Minstrelsy's Material Culture 5. Melody's Polyrhythmic Polysemic Possibilities 6. Akimbo Culture Conclusion: The Creole Synthesis in American Culture Appendix: Blackface Scholarship Notes Index | Irving Lowens Book Award, Society for American Music (SAM), 2015. — Society for American Music (SAM) | Christopher J. Smith is an associate professor and chair of musicology/ethnomusicology and the director of the Vernacular Music Center at the Texas Tech University School of Music. A working musician, he also performs, records, and tours internationally with the medieval music ensemble Altramar and other bands specializing in Irish traditional music and pre-World War II blues and jazz. Illustrating the multiethnic performance practices that led to minstrelsy The Creolization of American Culture examines the artworks, letters, sketchbooks, music collection, and biography of the painter William Sidney Mount (18071868) as a lens through which to see the multiethnic antebellum world that gave birth to blackface minstrelsy. As a young man living in the multiethnic working-class community of New York's Lower East Side, Mount took part in the black-white musical interchange his paintings depict. An avid musician and tune collector as well as an artist, he was among the first to depict vernacular fiddlers, banjo players, and dancers precisely and sympathetically. His close observations and meticulous renderings provide rich evidence of performance techniques and class-inflected paths of musical apprenticeship that connected white and black practitioners. Looking closely at the bodies and instruments Mount depicts in his paintings as well as other ephemera, Christopher J. Smith traces the performance practices of African American and Anglo-European music-and-dance traditions while recovering the sounds of that world. Further, Smith uses Mount's depictions of black and white music-making to open up fresh perspectives on cross-ethnic cultural transference in Northern and urban contexts, showing how rivers, waterfronts, and other sites of interracial interaction shaped musical practices by transporting musical culture from the South to the North and back. The "Africanization" of Anglo-Celtic tunes created minstrelsy's musical "creole synthesis," a body of melodic and rhythmic vocabularies, repertoires, tunes, and musical techniques that became the foundation of American popular music. Reading Mount's renderings of black and white musicians against a background of historical sites and practices of cross-racial interaction, Smith offers a sophisticated interrogation and reinterpretation of minstrelsy, significantly broadening historical views of black-white musical exchange. This book examines the artworks, letters, sketchbooks, music collection, and biography of the painter William Sidney Mount (1807–1868) as a lens through which to see the multi-ethnic antebellum world that gave birth to blackface minstrelsy. As a young man living in the multiethnic working-class community of New York's Lower East Side, Mount took part in the black-white musical interchange his paintings depict. An avid musician and tune collector as well as an artist, he was among the first to depict vernacular fiddlers, banjo players, and dancers precisely and sympathetically. His close observations and meticulous renderings provide rich evidence of performance techniques and class-inflected paths of musical apprenticeship that connected white and black practitioners. Looking closely at the bodies and instruments Mount depicts in his paintings as well as other ephemera, the book traces the performance practices of African American and Anglo-European music-and-dance traditions while recovering the sounds of that world. This book uses Mount's depictions of black and white vernacular fiddlers, banjo players, and dancers to open up fresh perspectives on cross-ethnic cultural transference in Northern and urban contexts, showing how rivers, waterfronts, and other sites of interracial interaction shaped musical practices by transporting musical culture from the South to the North and back. The “Africanization” of Anglo-Celtic tunes created minstrelsy's musical “creole synthesis,” a body of melodic and rhythmic vocabularies, repertoires, tunes, and musical techniques that became the foundation of American popular music. Examines The Artworks, Letters, Sketchbooks, Music Collection, And Biography Of The Painter William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) As A Lens Through Which To See The Multiethnic Antebellum World That Gave Birth To Blackface Minstrelsy. Recovering The Creole Synthesis : The Roots Of Blackface Minstrelsy -- The Creole Synthesis In The New World : Cultures In Contact -- Long Island And The Lower East Side : Mount's Background, Youth, And Apprenticeships -- Minstrelsy's Material Culture : The Evidence Of Mount's Portraiture -- Melody's Polyrhythmic Polysemic Possibilities : The Bodily Evidence Of Mount's Music -- Akimbo Culture : Dance And The Participatory Pleasures Of The Body. Christopher J. Smith. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This work examines the artworks, letters, sketchbooks, music collection, and biography of the painter William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) as a lens through which to see the multi-ethnic antebellum world that gave birth to blackface minstrelsy