For this study, the researcher examined views expressed in Godey's Lady's Book on (1) the role of music in the nineteenth-century curriculum, (2) the goals of music instruction (3) what should be and (4) who should receive musical training. The value of music instruction and the role of music in the curriculum were highly controversial subjects. While proponents cited extrinsic benefits, detractors viewed music as a frill. Boys were rarely mentioned in these discussions; music instruction was not considered a particularly masculine activity. Debates raged over whether a girl's music instruction would be an asset in adult life. Musical talent was viewed as a gift bestowed on a fortunate few, and parents were advised not to waste money on those who lacked natural ability. Rudimentary training was preferred over intensive study; reforming American taste sometimes was the goal. Ideologies and tensions evident in Godey's continue to surface in the modern discussion.
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References
1.
The findings reported in this article are part of a much larger study of Godey's. See Julia Eklund Koza, “Music and References to Music in Godey's Lady's Book, 1830-77,” 4 vols. (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1988). Findings reported here are based on an examination of 598 music-related stories and 1,149 music-related nonfiction articles.
“Editors' Table: Music Teachers,”Godey's Lady's Book59, no. 4 (October 1859): 370–71. (Emphasis in original.)
11.
Metta Victoria Fuller, “Beauty out West: or, How Three Fashionable Young Ladies Spent a Year in the Wilderness [Chapters I–II],” 52, no. 6 (June 1856): 495.
12.
Mrs. E. F. Ellet, “The Pioneer Mothers of Michigan. Ann Allen,”Godey's Lady's Book44, no. 5 (May 1852): 318.
“Editors' Table,”Godey's Lady's Book55, no. 4 (October 1857): 369. See also “Amusements at Home,” Godey's Lady's Book 59, no. 1 (July 1859): 48, for a republication of these comments.
Georgiana H. S. Hull, “False Pride,”Godey's Lady's Book55, no. 2 (August 1857): 115.
52.
See, for instance, “Editors' Table: December, 1869,”Godey's Lady's Book79, no. 6 (December 1869): 538. For another reference to music in the Boston schools, see “Editors' Table: Extract from a Letter,” Godey's Lady's Book 92, no. 1 (January 1876): 92.
53.
Hale incorrectly gives Mason's first name as “John,” but secondary sources confirm that Lowell Mason was her associate. See “Editors' Table: Songs for the Little Folks,”Godey's Lady's Book90, no. 1 (January 1875): 91; and Ruth Finley, The Lady of Godey's, Sarah Josepha Hale (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1931), 282.
For a more in-depth discussion of sex stereotyping in Godey's, see Julia Eklund Koza, “Music and the Feminine Sphere: Images of Women as Musicians in Godey's Lady's Book, 1830-77,”Musical Quarterly75, no. 2 (1991, in press).
