Music as Philanthropy: Making Music and Building Community in Nineteenth-Century America

Abstract

In nineteenth-century America, music was a form not only of entertainment, but also of philanthropy. Using Indianapolis as a model, this study demonstrates that musical performances raised money for needy people and worthwhile causes, but served an equally important function in helping to build a cohesive community, with both a national patriotism and a local civic pride. Music was a participatory activity, its performers and audiences drawn from the entire community without distinctions of class, wealth, or education. For its performers in particular, organized as they were in voluntary associations, music provided practical training in democracy. Evoking the philanthropic exertions of both musicians and patrons, capable of exercising a decisive moral influence over its listeners, music was explicitly understood to be an indispensable source of positive values.