CHAPTER TWO: “AFTER THE BALL”: MUSIC OF THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY
TWENTIETH CENTURIES
Important Names and Brief Bios
George Washington Dixon:
The first white performer to establish a wide reputation
as a “blackface” entertainer. His act featured two of the
earliest “Ethiopian” songs to enjoy widespread
popularity, “Long Tail Blue” and “Coal Black Rose.”
Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy”
White actor born into a poor family in New York’s
Rice (1808–60):
Seventh Ward. As a blackface performer, he introduced
the “Jim Crow” character.
Virginia Minstrels:
A minstrel troupe led by the white banjo virtuoso Dan
Emmett; their show introduced more lengthy
performances featuring a standardized group of
performers. They first appeared in 1843.
Stephen Collins Foster
Composed around two hundred songs during the 1840s,
(1826–64):
1850s, and early 1860s; regarded as the first important
composer of American popular song. He was probably
the first person in the United States to make his living as
a full-time professional songwriter; he wrote “Oh!
Susanna,” “Old Folks at Home,” “My Old Kentucky
Home, Good Night,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown
Hair,” and “Beautiful Dreamer.”
John Philip Sousa (1854–
The most popular bandleader from the 1890s through
1932):
World War I; was known as America’s “March King.”
CHAPTER TWO: “AFTER THE BALL”: MUSIC OF THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY
TWENTIETH CENTURIES
The son of a trombonist in the U.S. Marine Band, Sousa
eventually became its conductor and later formed a
“commercial” concert band, which toured widely in
America and Europe. He composed popular marches
such as “El Capitan,” “The Washington Post,” and “The
Stars and Stripes Forever.”
Paul Dresser (1857–1906):
One of the most popular composers of the early Tin Pan
Alley period; he wrote a series of sentimental and
nostalgic songs including “The Letter That Never Came”
(1885) and “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away”
(1899; later adopted as the official state song of Indiana).
Harry von Tilzer (1872–
Successful turn-of-the-century songwriter sometimes
1946):
referred to as the “Daddy of Popular Song”; his big hits
included “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” (1900) and “I Want a
Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad)”
(1911).
James A. Bland (1854–
One of the best-known and most successful composers of
1911):
plantation songs; the first successful black songwriter. An
ex-minstrel show performer from a middle-class
background, Bland wrote some seven hundred songs,
including “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” (published
in 1878, for a long time the official state song of
Virginia) and “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” (published in
CHAPTER TWO: “AFTER THE BALL”: MUSIC OF THE NINETEENTH AND EARLY
TWENTIETH CENTURIES
1879).
Charles K. Harris (1867–
Songwriter and self-taught banjo player from Wisconsin
1930):
who could not write down music; dictated his songs to a
professional musician. He wrote the first mega-hit
popular song, “After the Ball” (published in 1892).
Scott Joplin (1867–1917):
African American composer and pianist; the best-known
composer of ragtime music. Between 1895 and 1915,
Joplin composed many of the classics of the ragtime
repertoire and helped popularize the style through his
piano arrangements, published as sheet music. Scott
Joplin’s first successful piece was “Maple Leaf Rag”
(1898).