Hopkins at Home: Musical Maryland from Colonial Times through the Mid-20th Century

Description

David K. Hildebrand, a lecturer in musicology at Peabody and a specialist in Early American Music, will lead an online five-part course on Maryland's rich music history.

Maryland's diverse geography, economy, and English settlement in 1634 begat a rich music history. This course traces musical evolution from the great tobacco plantations of the Chesapeake Bay, with their co-mingled African and British music, through the emergence and flourishing of Baltimore into a center of publishing, concerts, opera, church music, instrument-building, and music teaching. Following the establishment of Peabody in 1859, we continue into the jazz age while examining the critical roles played by technological developments such as radio and commercial recording.

Throughout these sessions we will look beyond "classical" trends, also examining rich folk traditions and popular/commercial developments. Each of the five sessions will allow for interaction and question-driven discussion. Learn more about the course, including resources, online.

• Sept. 23: Overview — Why Maryland? Historical Context and a Listening Tour
• Sept. 30: Colonial Music — The Elite, the Enslaved, and All In Between
• Oct. 7: Revolution And 1812 — The Rise of the Music Business; and "Our Flag Was Still There"
• Oct. 14: Churches Urban and Rural, Civil War, and Peabody
• Oct. 21: Jazz, Opera, and the Opening of The Airwaves; and What about that State Song?