Nathan Uhlenbrock

HIST 4000

Dr. Gagnon

When the new nation of The United States of America was born, its European inhabitants were mostly of English and northern European decent. These immigrants experienced very different lives than they were accustomed to in Europe, or that their peers still carried out in that continent. Among the many variations in lifestyles between Europe and America was the lack of theater, music, and the other fine arts in the U.S. This absence was simply a function of the lack of population to support such frivolous activities, and the country was still spending much time and resources developing an infrastructure. Much of this changed, however, as the population, along with the amount of wealth in the country swelled, and comforts of the finer things began to show up in America. By the late 1700’s, a strange new instrument of high culture from Europe began to show up in America, and it was known as the Pianoforte, or “loudsoft” in Italian.1 The Pianoforte would eventually find its way into American upper class society and become a symbol of wealth, prosperity, and worldliness.

The first pianoforte was brought into America in 1775, and it resided in Philadelphia, the center for the arts on the continent at that time.2 In the following years of the late 1700’s, the pianoforte is mentioned regularly in Boston.3 This frequency of occurrence is intuitive since Boston was one of America’s largest cities, along with one of the largest concentrations of money before the Revolutionary War, so any items from far off places would most likely show up there first. After the war was over, the population of the US exploded with a mass immigration to US soil, and trade between the states and Europe boomed. New York began to grow rapidly, not only with laborers, but also with musicians, and it attracted importers, both of whom led to pianos appearing in the burgeoning city.4 There was still not enough of a market for the pianos to allow one to make a living simply on their trade at this time.

Concurrently, American upper class was struggling to be recognized as so, especially be their English well-to-do peers. The most popular thing in England inevitably became the most popular in the U.S. as cultured Americans struggled to fit in with the rich Europeans’ culture. In the 1790’s, the piano was surpassing the harpsichord as the fashionable drawing room mainstay in much of Western Europe. In 1798, the first music journal was published in Germany, and it was not long before similar papers were begun in England. These papers contained many advertisements for and reviews of music publications, most of which required a piano to perform.5 Accordingly, the piano gained popularity in America.

Since the early pianos in America all came from England, the music too was English.6 Some recognized that the talent for playing the instrument was sub-par in America. This lack was most likely due to the fact that the instrument was new to the country, and American piano owners were one step behind the Europeans since everything had to be imported. In the coming years, however, more Americans would learn the arts of composing and playing, and the piano would officially become part of American upper class culture.

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, the new, more liberal philosophies of the age were taking hold in the larger cities of Europe, followed by America. As a direct result of this act, many of the anti-music and anti-theater laws or sentiments were abolished. With the new liberalism burgeoning and the old sentiments of the evils of music dying, the art quickly began to gain popularity, and the piano was part of the trend. Since the wealthy were the only people who could afford to see musical performances and theater, and certainly the only ones who could afford their own musical instruments, the piano became something that every upper class house needed in order to be an acceptable part of society. Another occurrence also helped the surge of popularity of the piano. The 1800s-1820s saw a flood of Germans immigrants to the US and bringing with them their new style of music; they made up many of the music teachers and musicians in New York at that time.7 Adding more teachers of the instrument allowed more people to become acquainted with the pianoforte. Still, even with its added popularity, many owners did not have knowledge of how to play the piano. The lack of know-how implies the piano was more important as a decoration, of sorts, than as an instrument.8 Eventually this would change, and the knowledge of how to play the piano would become as important a cultural symbol as the instrument itself.

As the popularity of and the demand for pianos in America increased, it became increasingly nonsensical to rely on imports from Europe alone. American piano makers began to appear in the advertisements of the time, however, England was the where the largest number of pianos were produced and where the market for music was the greatest.9 Due in part to this market domination, the opinion of the day was still that things from London had an innate quality about them that their American-made cousins did not. This prejudice meant that some of the native piano makers also used other sources of income to subsidize themselves, such as continuing to sell imported pianos.10 The earliest mention of an American-made piano was in the form of an advertisement in the Philadelphia papers in 1775 by John Behrent, a German immigrant, stating that he had produced a piano and wanted to sell it.11 Mr. Behrent was an oddity in his time, but that would change in only a few decades.

The number of piano makers greatly increased from 1800 to 1830, as did the number of pianos bought by American households, but the vast majority of people still could not afford them. In 1829, it was estimated that one of every 4800 people purchased a piano, so the piano was clearly an object enjoyed by relatively few.12 The 1820s were a prolific time for the piano industry. In 1829 there were 2500 pianos made at a total value of $750,000; it is important to note that most of the pianos were sold in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, three of the more affluent cities, to show the concentration of pianos among the wealthy.13 In 1835, a man named John F. Goneke advertised in The Southern Banner that his new music school and store were now open for business. His store sold pianos, along with a number of other instruments, all of which were made in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.14 This is further evidence that the majority of American-made instruments in the early nineteenth century were produced in the aforementioned cities since they were the center of the market. However, since the above information comes from the Southern Banner, it is apparent that the piano was beginning to appear in places outside the metropolises of New England, namely, the South. More will be discussed about this expansion later.

The introduction of new patents that furthered the science of piano making in the US proved its establishment as an American instrument. Philadelphia’s piano-makers were the major revolutionizing agent in the piano industry in the 1820s and 30s.15 During that time, the two ports south of Philadelphia who developed greatly after the war, Charleston and Baltimore, also began to become involved in the patronage of pianos as their wealth strengthened.16 Also, Albany, NY became a commercial hub for the distribution of pianos, as did many other cities in New York, due in large part to the state mimicking Philadelphia’s creation of a “Mechanics Institute system of annual exhibitions.”17

As noted earlier, many American families who owned a piano had no ability to play it. This was more common in the last part of the eighteenth century and the very beginning of the nineteenth century. As the 1800’s progressed, the art of music gained momentum and more people of wealthy class were learning to play the piano. While the piano was absolutely confined to the upper class, an even narrower group, namely, wealthy, young women, most commonly used it. The most likely residents to have training in music were the daughters of rich aristocrats or the young wives of businessmen. For example, at Nomini Hall in New Bern, NC, a man named Philip Fithian taught the eight children of Ann and Robert Carter everything from arithmetic to English. Indeed, gender more than age determined the curricula, so only the Carter’s eldest daughter studied the piano, which she did two days a week. Females were seen as the socially superior sex, and knowledge of the piano was one of the things that epitomized gentility.18 Another example can be seen with the case of Congressman Timothy Fuller’s daughter. Mr. Fuller insisted his daughter, Margaret, learn how to play the piano, so he hired a Mr. Taylor to teach her while he was away in Washington. In the letters of correspondence, Margaret makes mention of having given performances in Boston and at a ball, and, according to her, she was quite successful. Mr. Fuller was certainly very proud of Margaret, for she had attained a talent desired in women of the time.19

It became customary to play music in the evening, and the young lady of the house usually performed this music. Indeed, the practice became so engrained in the culture of the day that a woman’s talent on her musical instrument, usually the piano, was judged as part of her appeal for courtship.20 The piano sent its roots deeper into the culture by becoming part of married women’s lives as well. Since only girls were trained on the piano from a young age, it was natural for them to continue playing once their talents had landed them a husband. Women married to wealthy men inevitably spent a lot of time at home. Some of this leisure time was devoted to continued study on the piano as the women were expected to keep the rest of the family up to date with the current musical trends. This was an important means of entertainment since there were no radios or musical performances every night.21

The cultural implications of the piano spread quickly from the accomplishments of rich maidens to other parts of life. The piano was expensive. A cheap one cost about two hundred dollars, which was about equal to half a year’s wages for a skilled carpenter. A firm in Boston in 1821 listed a number of pianos for sale, and among them was an “Elegant horizontal mahogany” at two hundred and seventy five dollars and an “Elegant horizontal American, with drawers” for two hundred and twenty five dollars. An expensive one was a quite lofty six hundred dollars, an amount with which one could purchase an entire house. Sometimes the fancy, imported pianos were even more expensive. An advertisement from another firm in Boston in 1817 had a “rosewood cabinet inlaid with brass and brass mounted” for $750, which was a sum equal to a year’s income of a well of family.22 It is fairly intuitive that if one spends so much money on one object, then the object should be displayed prominently for all to see. The pianoforte became a mainstay in the parlors of the wealthy. They were even painted conspicuously in the background of portraits done of wealthy people or families to make them appear more rich and worldly.

Another indication of how important the piano had become, and of how monumental a purchase it was, can be found in the insurance registers of the period. In 1868, Southern Mutual Insurance Company had listed in its fire register that thirteen people in Athens, GA had insurance for their pianos. Assuming that this number is representative of all the pianos in Athens at the time, it would testify to the fact that very few people could afford to own pianos. The population of Athens in 1868 was roughly three thousand people, so the percentage of those owning pianos was a mere one half percent. That means that for every person that owned a piano, there were approximately two hundred and thirty that did not. The above assumption is believed to be a valid one since it is logical that those who owned pianos would always insure them. It is, at least, apparent that many who owned pianos chose to cover them with some sort of insurance. The pianos were insured for anywhere from two hundred to four hundred dollars. Other items typically listed on the register were dwellings, furs, and apparel, so clearly the people who owned the instruments categorized them amongst the most important things they owned.23

As stated earlier, the piano began to spread across the country as the nineteenth century progressed. The information in the above paragraph not only provided evidence of the piano’s worth to its owner, but also shows that they had existed in the South for quite sometime by the late 1860s. Further evidence of the piano in the South can be shown by using Athens, GA as a case study again. In May of 1832, the Southern Banner printed a listing of a public auction to take place to sell the belongings and estate of a late resident of Athens, GA. Among the items listed for sale was a pianoforte. This fact by itself shows only that the piano was present in Athens in 1832, but when used in conjunction with the other items for sale, it becomes evident that this man was quite wealthy. Some examples of the other items for sale include a silver tea set, elegant bureaus, a house with fourteen rooms and nine fireplaces, and a five hundred acre estate along with the stock of cattle and hogs.24 This information strengthens the point that pianos were a symbol of the elite in antebellum America.

For a less macabre example, in March of 1832, the Southern Banner printed a story with the information that the Old Hundred Society of Athens was to give an oratorio. Mrs. Walthall, of whose “celebrity needs no comment,” was to play selections from the works of many famous musicians on the piano.25 Again, information can be extracted from these data. First, it is another example of the influence of the piano spreading beyond the rich of the North to the wealthy plantation owners in the South. Second, since it is stated that the woman supposed to perform on the piano is famous, it can be concluded that locals who had knowledge of the piano were known for it. This leads to the conclusion that the piano was culturally important enough for a player to be locally, if not nationally, famous.

The development of the piano in America continued to progress until the onset of the Civil War. In the previous decades, the instruments had been improving in quality of both design and sound. Americans loved the piano so much, in fact, that they eventually developed the square, metal-framed design that became the most prominent one in the world. All of the culture surrounding the piano began in Antebellum America with the few wealthy people pursuing their desires to live like wealthy Europeans. The implications were far reaching, as has been shown, and the piano continued to influence America as a cultural symbol.

1. Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women and Pianos. Simon and Schuster, New York: 1954, pp440.

2. Spillane, Daniel. History of the American Pianoforte. Da Capo Press, New York: 1969, pp72.Loesser, pp441.

3. Loesser, pp441.

4. Loesser, pp444; Spillane, pp98.

5. Parakilas, James. Piano Roles. Yale University Press, New Haven: 1999, pp94.

6. Loesser, pp445.

7. Spillane, pp107.

8. Loesser, pp457.

9. Loesser, pp468; Parakilas, pp497.

10. Loesser, pp460.

11. Parakilas, pp40.

12. Loesser, pp469.

13. Spillane, pp84.

14. Southern Banner. pp3, col. 3-4. October 22, 1835.

15. Spillane, pp115.

16. Spillane, pp126.

17. Spillane, pp137, 145, 148.

18. “Hospitality, Sociability, and Gender in the Southern Colonies”: Cynthia A. Kierner, The Journal of Southern History: Vol.LXII No.3 Aug 1996.

19. “Margaret Fuller’s Schooldays in Cambridge”: Madeline B. Stern. The New England Quarterly, Vol 13, No. 2, Jun 1940, pp207-222.

20. Parakilas, pp98.

21. Parakilas, pp98-101.

22. Loesser, pp459.

23. Southern Mutual Insurance Company, Fire Register, Vol. 1, 1868.

24. “Auction.” Southern Banner, pp3, col. 4: April 17, 1832.

25. “Oratorio.” Southern Banner, pp3, col. 3: July 20, 1832.