Music History Lecture: 19th-Century American Popular Music — Key Terms & Figures

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, figures, and listening works from the notes (Page 1).

Minstrel show

A 19th‑century American form of entertainment featuring mostly white performers in blackface performing comic sketches, songs, and dances; a dominant vehicle for early American popular music and racial stereotypes.

Ragtime

A musical genre characterized by syncopated rhythms, often for piano, that flourished in the 1890s–1910s and helped shape early American popular music.

Strophes

In song structure, a strophe is a verse or stanza; sections of lyrics that are repeated with varying melodies in the music.

Syncopation

Rhythmic emphasis on off‑beats or weaker beats, creating a lively, irregular feel in music.

Tin Pan Alley

The New York City area and era (late 19th to early 20th century) known for prolific popular-song publishing and the rise of mass‑market American songwriting.

Vaudeville

A popular American variety entertainment form (late 19th–early 20th century) featuring multiple acts such as song, dance, comedy, and novelty acts.

Waltz

A ballroom dance in 3/4 time that was widely popular in 19th‑century music and dance.

Charles K. Harris

American songwriter best known for composing “After the Ball” (1892), one of the era’s early big Tin Pan Alley hits.

George Washington Dixon

Pioneer American minstrel show performer, contributing to the early tradition of blackface entertainment in the United States.

Harry von Tilzer

American songwriter associated with Tin Pan Alley; produced many popular songs around the turn of the 20th century.

James A. Bland

African American songwriter and performer known for minstrel-era songs and contributions to early American popular music.

John Philip Sousa

American composer and conductor famed for his marches; nicknamed “The March King.”

Paul Dresser

American songwriter and composer of late 19th‑century popular songs, including “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away.”

Scott Joplin

African American composer and pianist, a leading figure of ragtime; composer of “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899).

Stephen Collins Foster

American songwriter of the 19th century who wrote many enduring American songs, including “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” (1854).

Thomas Dartmouth Rice

American minstrel performer credited with popularizing the Jim Crow character in minstrelsy.

Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (1854)

A sentimental parlor song by Stephen Foster, composed in 1854. Noted in recordings/performances (Thomas Hampson, 1992).

After the Ball (1892)

A popular Tin Pan Alley ballad written by Charles K. Harris; one of the era’s early hit songs (featured in performance by Joan Morris & William Bolcom, 1990).

Maple Leaf Rag (1899)

A landmark ragtime piano piece by Scott Joplin that helped define the genre’s characteristic syncopation and form.