The Progressive Politics of the German-American Forty-Eighters as Reflected in the Music of Herrman Saroni (c. 1823-1900)
Researchers have extensively documented and analyzed the largely liberal political views of the German “forty-eighters,” who immigrated to the United States in great numbers in the aftermath of the 1848 revolutions. These views generally included support for European nationalism, labor, and the abolition of slavery, and many of these immigrants also sympathized with feminism. German-born composer, writer, and pedagogue Herrman Saroni was not, strictly speaking, a forty-eighter (he arrived in New York in 1844), but his musical compositions of the 1840s and 1850s demonstrate agreement with forty-eighter politics. In this paper, I will show how Saroni expressed this political ideology in his music, using items from the Library of Congress’s Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820 to 1860 digital collection and other primary sources. Means of political communication included use of visual media (such as nationalist art on sheet music covers), advocacy by proxy (setting texts by authors with strong liberal positions on political issues, such as nationalism, abolitionism, and feminism), support by association (advertising works in liberal publications), and support via musical style (musical characteristics intended to evoke sympathy with certain groups). More specifically, Saroni’s Lorimer Mazurka was advertised in William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, which was highly influential in progressive circles. His solo piano work Vive la republique and song “Awakening of Italy” used rich cover art to support the 1848 revolutions in France and Italy. Lyricists set by Saroni included figures such as William Cullen Bryant (a well-known abolitionist and labor advocate), the Reverend Sidney Dyer (a missionary to Native Americans), and Caroline E.S. Norton (a prominent feminist and social reformer). Saroni’s career, which has been the subject of very little prior scholarship, is representative of the politics of one of America’s important immigrant communities.
Researchers have extensively documented and analyzed the largely liberal political views of the German “forty-eighters,” who immigrated to the United States in great numbers in the aftermath of the 1848 revolutions. These views generally included support for European nationalism, labor, and the abolition of slavery, and many of these immigrants also sympathized with feminism. German-born composer, writer, and pedagogue Herrman Saroni was not, strictly speaking, a forty-eighter (he arrived in New York in 1844), but his musical compositions of the 1840s and 1850s demonstrate agreement with forty-eighter politics. In this paper, I will show how Saroni expressed this political ideology in his music, using items from the Library of Congress’s Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1820 to 1860 digital collection and other primary sources. Means of political communication included use of visual media (such as nationalist art on sheet music covers), advocacy by proxy (setting texts by authors with strong liberal positions on political issues, such as nationalism, abolitionism, and feminism), support by association (advertising works in liberal publications), and support via musical style (musical characteristics intended to evoke sympathy with certain groups). More specifically, Saroni’s Lorimer Mazurka was advertised in William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, which was highly influential in progressive circles. His solo piano work Vive la republique and song “Awakening of Italy” used rich cover art to support the 1848 revolutions in France and Italy. Lyricists set by Saroni included figures such as William Cullen Bryant (a well-known abolitionist and labor advocate), the Reverend Sidney Dyer (a missionary to Native Americans), and Caroline E.S. Norton (a prominent feminist and social reformer). Saroni’s career, which has been the subject of very little prior scholarship, is representative of the politics of one of America’s important immigrant communities.
