Bound Music, Unbound Women

Book excerpt: During the nineteenth century the households of advantaged Americans were tempered by a widely accepted parlor culture that informed the construction of gender and so many other related aspects of society. Central to this way of life was a set of expectations and behaviors for the American woman--in fact, an ideal. In spite of dangers and excesses well addressed at the time, the cultivation of musical interests by young women was encouraged and admired. Professor Meyer-Frazier has turned her attention to this subject with a thoughtful study of the sheet music collected by girls during their years of education and courtship. A large number of these keepsake volumes of so-called "parlor music" survive and bear witness to the lives of their owners. With the benefit of period literature and recent scholarship Dr. Meyer-Frazier places these documents in context and considers their nature and meaning from a variety of sociological and musicological angles. Nine lucid essays are enhanced by biographical vignettes of representative collectors and by iconographical examples adorning sheet music covers [Publisher description]