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THE POLITICS OF MUSICAL REENACTMENT: CIVIL WAR COMMEMORATION IN AMERICAN CULTURE by ELIZABETH WHITTENBURG OZMENT (Under the Direction of Jean Ngoya Kidula, Ph.D.) ABSTRACT The Politics of Musical Reenactment: Civil War Commemoration in American Culture explores how Americans have used music to represent the U.S. Civil War. Music contributes to the construction and presentation of competing historical narratives about this war, each of which is used to position a particular community at the fore of American cultural identity. Through ethnographic study and musical analysis of a mock slave auction, folk opera, brass band revival, war reenactment, YouTube videos, laser show, and amusement park, this study demonstrates how musical reenactments perform race, class, gender, ethnicity, and citizenship in ways that suppress or resist the power of other social groups through the control of historical knowledge. The specific past that a community chooses to present evidences how it envisions itself in relationship to others. Whether or not these productions are a form of conflict resolution, they capture a snapshot of our current state and provide direction as to what people wish to become. INDEX WORDS: Civil War music, cultural memory, reenactment, Stone Mountain, Gettysburg, YouTube, folk opera, slave auction, brass band, nostalgia THE POLITICS OF MUSICAL REENACTMENT: CIVIL WAR COMMEMORATION IN AMERICAN CULTURE by ELIZABETH WHITTNEBURG OZMENT B.M., James Madison University, 2005 M.M. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2014 © 2014 Elizabeth Whittenburg Ozment All Rights Reserved THE POLITICS OF MUSICAL REENACTMENT: CIVIL WAR COMMEMORATION IN AMERICAN CULTURE by ELIZABETH WHITTENBURG OZMENT Major Professor: Jean Ngoya Kidula Committee: Susan Thomas Adrian Childs David Schiller Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2014 DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my husband, my parents, and my sister. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am exceedingly grateful to my advisor, Jean Kidula, whose mentorship has allowed me to grow as a scholar in ways that I had never imagined. For your incredible knowledge, patience, encouragement, generosity of time, and tireless work, I am indebted to you. I most sincerely acknowledge Susan Thomas, Adrian Childs, and David Schiller, whose wisdom and support has been truly inspirational. A more supportive dissertation committee a graduate student will never find. A special thanks to Carrie Allen Tipton, Joanna Smolko, Tim Smolko, and Matt Jones, for their moral support during fieldwork, for listening to me talk through my ideas, and for providing valuable feedback that helped me improve my work. For his attention to detail and calming effect during my formatting process, as well as his unwavering support of my pursuit of this degree, I want to thank Michael Ozment. Thank you Stephanie Tingler for being a positive force in my life. I am thankful to Whitney Holley for sharing her home with me when I was too tired to commute home. I must also acknowledge Nancy Riley for countless evenings of story swapping at her kitchen table, and for her friendship at every stage of my doctoral degree. Thank you to my laser show focus group for their time and effort, to Sara Paiva for accompanying me on a road trip through the Shenandoah Valley. I would also like to thank all of my informants, the majority of whom are not individually identified in this work, but whose stories and insight greatly contributed to my knowledge of reenactment events and practices. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL MEMORY & REENACTMENT ......1 Introduction ......................................................................................1 Reenactment: A Note on Terminology ............................................3 Objectives ........................................................................................4 Methodology ....................................................................................6 Literature Review.............................................................................7 Memory Studies .....................................................................8 Reenactment Studies ............................................................19 Civil War History .................................................................26 Civil War Memory ...............................................................38 Commemorations .................................................................41 Civil War Music ...................................................................49 Civil War Music Memory ....................................................55 Trends in the Literature ..................................................................65 Chapter Projections ........................................................................66 vi 2 SOUNDING SLAVERY IN ST. LOUIS...................................................70 Mock Slave Auctions in American History ....................................70 Inspiration for the St. Louis Slave Auction ....................................75 Staging the St. Louis Slave Auction ...............................................76 Music and Temporal Slippage ..............................................78 Sounding the Bid-Call...........................................................79 The Sounds of Separation .....................................................84 Musical Release ....................................................................87 Risks and Benefits of Reenacting Slavery ......................................88 3 PRELUDE TO FREEDOM, A CONTRABAND FOLK OPERA ............92 Historical Background ...................................................................94 The Politics of Composing the Folk Opera....................................97 Composing Heritage ......................................................................99 Introduction to the Opera .............................................................102 Musical and Narrative Themes in Prelude to Freedom ...............104 Thematic Elements.......................................................................107 Reiterations of Prelude to Freedom .............................................121 4 SONIC HERITAGE OF CIVIL WAR BRASS BANDS ........................127 The Sounds of Conspiracy ...........................................................131 A Historicization of Revival ........................................................136 The Politics of Sonic Heritage .....................................................141 What Was Lost? ...........................................................................145 New Applications of Repatriation ...............................................150 vii 5 SOUTHERN VICTORY AT THE GETTYSBURG BALL ...................153 GAR and the Northern Origins of Battle Reenacting ...................154 The Lost Cause and Southern Origins of Battle Reenacting ........155 Gettysburg Tourism and Reenacting Hobbies ..............................157 Centennial and Contemporary Trends in Reenacting ...................159 Geography of Battle Reenactments ..............................................161 Dancing the Civil War at Gettysburg............................................164 String Bands and the Folklorization of Minstrelsy .......................172 6 AESTHETICS OF REITERATION IN CIVIL WAR MUSIC VIDEOS 177 A Taxonomy of Civil War Music Videos ....................................179 Original Content.................................................................182 Repeated Content ...............................................................183 Reconfigured Content ........................................................184 “US Civil War Music Video” ......................................................186 “The Columbia Flying Artillery” .................................................194 Conclusions ..................................................................................204 7 MUSIC AND LIGHT AT STONE MOUNTAIN ....................................208 Socio-Historical Context ..............................................................209 Introduction to the Laser Show ....................................................216 Stone Mountain Experiences .......................................................219 Reception Study ...........................................................................223 Two Kings: Elvis and Lee at Stone Mountain .............................228 Whitney Houston Goes to the Rock .............................................235 viii Conclusions ..................................................................................244 8 CIVIL WAR NOSTALGIA AT DINOSAUR KINGDOM ....................248 Geography ....................................................................................249 Touring Dinosaur Kingdom .........................................................252 The Recording