VOICE, RACE, and NATION in US MUSIC, 1890-1924 by Scott A
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VOX AMERICANA: VOICE, RACE, AND NATION IN U.S. MUSIC, 1890-1924 by Scott A. Carter A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 2014 Date of final oral examination: 05/15/2014 This dissertation is approved by the following members of the Final Oral Committee Ronald M. Radano, Professor, School of Music Jerome Camal, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Susan C. Cook, Professor, School of Music R. Anderson Sutton, Professor, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa Amanda Weidman, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Bryn Mawr College i For Katie ii The more I hear, the less I know. — "Music is a Better Noise," Essential Logic iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements v List of Figures ix A Note on Transcriptions and Direct Quotations x Chapter One 1 Introduction Chapter Two 28 Anthropology, Vocal Science, and the Ordering of World Song Chapter Three 73 Forging a Sound Citizenry: Voice Culture and the Embodiment of the Nation Chapter Four 122 Bert Williams's Vocal Challenge Chapter Five 167 The Vocal Economy of Vernon Dalhart Epilogue 205 Bibliography 211 iv v Acknowledgements Like any major project, my dissertation has benefitted from the insights, critiques, and generous advice of friends and colleagues. I want to begin my acknowledgements by thanking the community of scholars in the School of Music at UW-Madison for creating programs that challenge students to produce scholarship of the highest caliber while allowing them the freedom to pursue avenues of innovative musical inquiry. I am particularly grateful for the interdisciplinary approach to scholarship afforded by the department, which allowed me to seek out and work with scholars in anthropology, history, communication arts, and Afro-American studies. While committed to a strong foundation in the historiography and methodologies of musical scholarship, the department's strengths lie in its willingness to challenge disciplinary boundaries in order to develop a fuller understanding of why and how music matters. My research for Chapter Three was funded by a Vilas Research Travel Grant, which allowed me to spend many fruitful hours in the archives of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. My warmest thanks and gratitude go to the staff of these institutions. A Mellon-Wisconsin Summer Fellowship aided greatly in the writing and completion of this dissertation. I am also greatly appreciative of the opportunity to serve twice as a teaching assistant for the Black Music and American Cultural History through Afro-American Studies Department. My thanks, as well, to Tom Caw and the staff at Mills Music Library. My advisor, Ron Radano, has worked tirelessly to cultivate an environment for advancing the cultural study of music, and my work here owes whatever strengths it contains to his helpful vi critiques. This project, in fact, developed from research I conducted for him on musical form in the country blues and songster traditions during my first two years of graduate school. Listening to the music of Pink Anderson, Blind Blake, Papa Charlie Jackson, and other musicians working in the 1920s and 1930s inspired me to seek out their influences, research which led ultimately to the chapter on Bert Williams found in this dissertation. I simply cannot thank him enough for the careful readings he has given my work over the years. The other members of my dissertation committee have offered invaluable insights that have shaped fundamentally my understandings of music's significance to our lives. Susan Cook challenged me over the years to pay careful attention to how the body enacts meaning through musical performance. I am particularly grateful for having the opportunity to teach with her — Susan's commitment to pedagogy serves as a constant reminder of the importance of making our scholarship accessible to our students. For seven years I absorbed a deep understanding for how to listen carefully and critically to musical performances by studying gamelan under Andy Sutton; his patience with my novice bonang playing stands as a testament of his dedication to ethnomusicological training. I first met Amanda Weidman in 2011 at the Music Race Empire symposium held at UW-Madison, and my conversations with her on issues of the voice since then have helped clarify my approach to voice studies and its social significance. My thanks, too, to Jerome Camal, especially for his review of my French translations found in this text. Any errors are mine. I want to thank, as well, the other faculty members with whom I worked at Madison: Lois Anderson, Brian Hyer, Pamela Potter, Larry Earp, and Michele Hilmes. My work has also benefitted from the Music and Culture workshops led by Ron that brought together graduates students from across the humanities and provided a forum for thinking through our research and our writing strategies. I am particularly indebted to my vii conversations with Julian Lynch, Melissa Reiser, Andy Hicken, Robert Torre, Rachel Goc, Steve Laronga, Jenni Veitch Olsen, David Gilbert, Charles Hughes, and Raquel Paraiso that took place through this forum. Anya Holland-Barry and Chris Barry have also proved stalwart supporters and friends over the years, and I am forever thankful for their kindness and generosity. A hearty thank you to the Music Club folks — especially Craig Werner, Wyl and Joanna Schuth, Tracy Curtis, and Jeff Kollath — for reminding me that music is meant to be enjoyed, not just studied in the cold environs of a university office. Thanks, too, to Greg and Mary Hudalla for their steady friendship and support. Fritz Schenker has proven himself time and again to be both a gentleman and a scholar, and his encouragement and criticisms throughout these past few years have always helped shaped my work for the better. I cannot count the number of times I have sought out Katie Graber's keen mind and support over the years, and I will be forever in her debt. I first met Alexander Shashko when I served as his teaching assistant in the Afro-American Studies course on black music and U.S. history, an experience that shaped fundamentally my understanding of music's importance to historical and social matters. His teaching philosophy and pedagogical methods are a model for anyone committed to education, and his friendship has provided a pillar of support whenever I most needed it. And Matt Sumera — I genuinely cannot thank him enough for the conversations, drinks, and mentorship that he has provided since over the years. Next round's on me. The love and support of my parents, Billy and Sherry Carter, has never wavered over the years. They have shown me the importance of family, of understanding how to balance life and work, and I owe my success to their constant support of my every endeavor. And, finally, I want to thank Katie, to whom this dissertation is dedicated and without whom it would not exist. Her patience and understanding over the past few years has been my viii rock, and knowing that she would be there at the end of each day of research and writing has been my inspiration. I owe this dissertation — and some well-deserved respite — to her. ix List of Figures Figure 1.1. Last of the Organ Grinders 2 Figure 2.1. Basic vocal anatomy 45 Figure 2.2. Assur's aria from Teobaldo ed Esolina 46 Figure 2.3. Assur's aria from Teobaldo ed Esolina 46 Figure 2.4. From Hunt's Manual of the Philosophy of Voice and Speech (1859) 60 Figure 3.1. NGram of neurasthenia from 1860 until 1940 92 Figure 3.2. NGram of voice culture from 1860 until 1940 92 Figure 3.3. Exercise from Hulbert, Breathing for Voice Production 111 Figure 3.4. Paul Althouse 118 Figure 4.1. Williams and Walker, in and out of costume 149 Figure 4.2. Williams glares at his competitor in A Natural Born Gambler 159 Figure 4.3. From confidence to despair in A Natural Born Gambler 160 Figure 5.1. Advertisement for a Dalhart Tone Test in the Kansas City Star 187 x A Note on Transcriptions and Direct Quotations The politics of representing speech are complex, particularly when it comes to issues of dialect such as those found in blackface minstrelsy performance. I have chosen in this dissertation to transcribe song lyrics and spoken text in standard so-called English, except when quoting directly from a published source (sheet music, secondary sources, etc.), for two reasons. First, any attempt to reproduce dialect speech will ultimately fail to capture the rich nuances of vocal performance engaged in by performers. How could one, for instance, capture the subtle use of diphthongs by a performer such as Bert Williams in written text? Second, I have found this approach to be more conducive to reading. Anyone who has read sources that attempt to reproduce the sound of idiosyncratic speech knows all too well the difficulties of understanding what the speaker is actually saying. 1 Chapter One Introduction Writing in 1920, New York Times cartoonist and author Denys Wortman captured the aural and visual signifiers of urban life in a fictional narrative entitled, "Last of the Organ Grinders" (See Figure 1.1).1 An ever-present figure on New York City streets since the middle of the nineteenth century, the figure of the organ grinder and the repetitive sounds of his barrel organ captured for middle- and upper-class residents the aural nuisance of modern urban life.2 Commentators in New York City had for years targeted street musicians with derision, legislation, and even incitements of violence.