Musical Politics in French Philadelphia, 1781-1801 Myron Gray University of Pennsylvania, [email protected]
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1-1-2014 Musical Politics in French Philadelphia, 1781-1801 Myron Gray University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Music Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Gray, Myron, "Musical Politics in French Philadelphia, 1781-1801" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1292. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1292 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1292 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Musical Politics in French Philadelphia, 1781-1801 Abstract This dissertation considers the musical people, places, and repertories of Philadelphia at the end of the eighteenth century, bringing the history of Franco-American politics to bear on the interpretation of selected musical works. The first chapter explores the role of music in diplomatic entertainments at Philadelphia's French consulate during the closing years of the War of Independence. At the 1782 fete for the Dauphin of France and in Francis Hopkinson's 1781 dramatic cantata, America Independent, music helped to solidify the postwar order and to forge a consensus on the meaning of the Revolution. Chapter two treats the Philadelphian reception of French revolutionary song, connecting it to the emergence of U.S. partisanship. After documenting the role of songs including "Ã?a Ira," "La Carmagnole," and "La Marseillaise" in Philadelphia street culture, I consider how the music printer Benjamin Carr reconciled such tunes to the refined context of the drawing room. Chapter three discusses Philadelphian examples of reactionary song that appeared in the wake of the Terror, primarily those by the St. Dominguan emigrant Jean-Baptiste Renaud de Chateaudun. English royalist laments also circulated, but they differed in terms of compositional approach. Editorial changes to Chateaudun's music sheets point to an Anglo-American hegemony in the realm of musical style. Finally, chapter four describes the proliferation of anti-French contrafacts that accompanied the decline of diplomatic relations between the United States and France. Varying widely in terms of their source material and compositional quality, these songs portrayed the Quasi-War in terms of an analogy with the American Revolution. Federalists leveraged the French crisis to promote a war-ready vigilance against perceived threats to a hard-won liberty. In all, the dissertation illustrates the contestedness of musical and political life in late-eighteenth-century Philadelphia. It shows not only that early American cultural and political expression were tightly connected, but that they were dynamic, conflicted, and necessarily related to developments in France and its colonies. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Music First Advisor Carolyn Abbate Keywords France, History, Music, Philadelphia, Politics, United States Subject Categories Music | United States History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1292 MUSICAL POLITICS IN FRENCH PHILADELPHIA, 1781–1801 Myron Gray A DISSERTATION in Music Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Supervisor of Dissertation _______________________ Carolyn Abbate Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University Graduate Group Chairperson _______________________ Jairo Moreno, Associate Professor of Music Dissertation Committee Jeffrey Kallberg, Associate Dean for Arts and Letters and Professor of Music François Furstenberg, Associate Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University MUSICAL POLITICS IN FRENCH PHILADELPHIA, 1781–1801 COPYRIGHT 2014 Myron Karl Gray This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ny-sa/2.0/ ACKNOWLEDGMENT This dissertation received funding from the American Antiquarian Society, the American Musicological Society, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the University of Pennsylvania. It benefitted from the insight of my supervisor, Carolyn Abbate, and from the care that my committee members, Jeffrey Kallberg and François Furstenberg, took in reading each chapter. Most of all, this project is indebted to the support of my wife and family. iii ABSTRACT MUSICAL POLITICS IN FRENCH PHILADELPHIA, 1781–1801 Myron Gray Carolyn Abbate This dissertation considers the musical people, places, and repertories of Philadelphia at the end of the eighteenth century, bringing the history of Franco-American politics to bear on the interpretation of selected musical works. The first chapter explores the role of music in diplomatic entertainments at Philadelphia’s French consulate during the closing years of the War of Independence. At the 1782 fête for the Dauphin of France and in Francis Hopkinson’s 1781 dramatic cantata, America Independent, music helped to solidify the postwar order and to forge a consensus on the meaning of the Revolution. Chapter two treats the Philadelphian reception of French revolutionary song, connecting it to the emergence of U.S. partisanship. After documenting the role of songs including “Ça Ira,” “La Carmagnole,” and “La Marseillaise” in Philadelphia street culture, I consider how the music printer Benjamin Carr reconciled such tunes to the refined context of the drawing room. Chapter three discusses Philadelphian examples of reactionary song that appeared in the wake of the Terror, primarily those by the St. Dominguan emigrant Jean-Baptiste Renaud de Chateaudun. English royalist laments also circulated, but they differed in terms of compositional approach. Editorial changes to Chateaudun’s music sheets point to an Anglo-American hegemony in the realm of musical style. Finally, chapter four describes the proliferation of anti-French contrafacts that accompanied the decline of diplomatic relations between the United States and France. Varying widely in terms of their source material and compositional quality, these songs portrayed the Quasi-War in terms iv of an analogy with the American Revolution. Federalists leveraged the French crisis to promote a war-ready vigilance against perceived threats to a hard-won liberty. In all, the dissertation illustrates the contestedness of musical and political life in late-eighteenth-century Philadelphia. It shows not only that early American cultural and political expression were tightly connected, but that they were dynamic, conflicted, and necessarily related to developments in France and its colonies. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgment iii Abstract iv List of Tables vii List of Illustrations viii List of Musical Examples xi Preface xiii Chapter 1 Musical Politics at Philadelphia’s French Consulate, 1781–1782 1 Chapter 2 Early American Partisanship and the Printing of French Revolutionary Song 42 Chapter 3 Renaud de Chateaudun and the Royalist Lament in Federal Philadelphia 95 Chapter 4 Federalist Contrafacts of the Quasi-War 162 Appendices 224 Bibliography 228 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 144 Form of Chateaudun’s “Queen of France” and “Elegy” Table 3.2 144 Form of Chateaudun’s “Marian’s Complaint” Table 3.3 149 Clef symbols used by U.S. music publishers of the 1790s vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1.1 15 Annotated libretto for Hopkinson’s America Independent Figure 1.2 31 Libretto for Hopkinson’s Temple of Minerva (revision of America Independent) Figure 1.3 37 Libretto for The Temple of Cloacina (parody of The Temple of Minerva) Figure 2.1 45 Portrait of Benjamin Carr Figure 2.2 47 Interior of the Chestnut Street Theatre Figure 2.3 47 Exterior of the Chestnut Street Theatre Figure 2.4 75 Carr edition of “La Marseillaise” Figure 2.5 80 Carr edition of “La Carmagnole” Figure 2.6 89 Carr edition of “Ça Ira” Figure 3.1 129 Cover page of d’Ennery, Romances du Cimitière de la Madeleine Figure 3.2 146 Title area and first system of Chateaudun, “Queen of France” Figure 3.3 147 Title area and first system of Chateaudun, “Elegy” Figure 3.4 147 Title area and first system of Chateaudun, “Marian’s Complaint” Figure 3.5 150 Title area and opening systems of C[apron], “Come Genius of Our Happy Land” viii Figure 3.6 150 Title area and opening systems of “The Duke of Yorck’s [sic] March” Figure 3.7 151 Title area and opening systems of Phile, “President’s March” Figure 3.8 151 Title area and opening systems of Phile and Hopkinson, “The President’s March” Figure 3.9 154 Cover and first page of Chateaudun, Six romances nouvelles Figure 3.10 156 Cover and first page of Chateaudun, “Paul au tombeau de Virginie” Figure 4.1 180 Carr edition of “Freedom Triumphant” Figure 4.2 182 Carr reprint of “Adams and Liberty” Figure 4.3 186 London edition of “The Anacreontic Song” Figure 4.4 189 Carr edition of “Brother Soldiers All Hail” Figure 4.5 194 Gilfert edition of “The Ladies’ Patriotic Song” Figure 4.6 199 Hewitt edition of “The Federal Constitution and Liberty Forever” Figure 4.7 203 Carr reprint of “New Yankee Doodle” Figure 4.8a 210 Version 1 of Adams portrait in Carr edition of “Hail Columbia” Figure 4.8b 211 Version 2 of Adams portrait in Carr edition of “Hail Columbia” Figure 4.8c 211 Removed