This paper is an investigation of the history of music in colonial New Orleans as presented by American musicologists. My desire is to show that the texts that have been written have depended quite heavily, at times singly, on writings of European colonizers and travelers. While this is understandable in terms of Eurocentric history-creating traditions, in light of work in recent years by cultural and postcolonial theorists in recent years (Bhabha, Spivak, McClintock, Amhad, and others), it is important to stress the necessity of the voice the Subaltern in the construction of history in twenty-first century scholarship.

My interest in New Orleans stems from both my interest in American history and several visits to the city in the past few years. Situated at the articulation of several cultures, both geographically and historically, New Orleans has retained Caribbean culture and centuries-old tradition in a way that is unrivaled within the United States. I have chosen to examine the European colonial period, ending with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, both because I feel the material on this period is limited and because I am interested in applying ideas from postcolonial theory to American history. Hopefully, my research will extend chronologically into the nineteenth century. It is my hope that this project will shed new light on the creation of an environment that enabled the development of jazz a century later.

I began my research by asking what material is available in the United States; I limited my search to texts written in English. Searching through library catalogs and journal indexes I eventually compiled a collection of writings, practically all from the past 35 years, on music in New Orleans prior to the development of jazz in the late nineteenth century. Secondly, I combed through the bibliographies of these texts, to see what work the authors were working with. Looking through these writings I asked what information was included, and what was excluded, either out of unavailability or impracticality. Keeping the work of various Subaltern Studies scholars in mind (Bhabha, Asad, Spivak, Minh-Ha, and others), I paid careful attention to the primary sources used by the writers I was exploring; are any voices being excluded? Are any people being mis-represented or omitted from history altogether?

This selection of the Louisiana Purchase as the cutoff of my research is not a fallacy of false periodization (Fischer 144), but instead demarcates an important transition between two types of colonialization, the first a colonialization by external imperialist nations and the second by internal forces, a distinction presented by Rodolfo Acuña (Acuña 20). In addition to this conceptual change in colonialization, the Louisiana Purchase brought an increase in documentation, as English language newspapers, U.S. Census reports, and reports by American military and civilians increase. It is important to note that most American archives, particularly those in New Orleans, consist mainly of material gathered after the purchase; most material prior to the transfer, from the periods of French and Spanish rule, has found its way into the respective archives of those two countries. Future research with overseas archives would be a logical continuation of my current research.

I find it important to explain my references to jazz. I do not see this paper as an attempt to uncover the origins of jazz music. Rather than try to uncover the decipher the exact historical makeup of jazz (viz. 40% blues, 25% court music, 25% African drumming, 10% Spanish dancing), a family tree of musical culture, if you will, I would prefer to present the situation of music as relevant to the period as possible. Many of the writings on early New Orleans music approach it from the former perspective, looking for clues to the origins of jazz. In my work I will remain conscious of these traps of presentism and tunnel history, opting instead to look at colonial New Orleans separate from its future, although not separate from its past.

For this paper, I will present four texts that I believe have been beneficial to the construction of colonial New Orleans music history. In 1966 Henry Kmen published Music in New Orleans: The Formative Years 1791-1841, an expansion of his dissertation at Tulane University. Kmen distinguished his seminal book as a social history, a “presentation and analysis of the external record of… musical activities as they emerged in New Orleans” (Kmen viii), not as an anthropological or musicological study, which would deal respectively with the specifics of origins and musical details. Kmen focused on the development of European opera in New Orleans, where opera has existed continuously longer than in any other North American city. A few of his chapters present dances, an important source of entertainment and diversion throughout the eighteenth century in New Orleans, and the last chapter, “Negro Music,” is fairly self-explanatory both in subject and approach. Kmen carried out extensive research in the city archives of New Orleans; this work has been invaluable to many scholars, myself included, in the years since the publication of the book. The pre-American primary sources Kmen used consist primarily of newspapers and other periodicals, correspondences, memoirs, and travel accounts, all written by European travelers or recently arrived French and Spanish residents of the city. While it may be unfair to criticize Kmen for being unaware of issues that arose twenty years after the publication of his book, the recognition of Kmen’s exclusion of non-European sources and the omission of music prior to 1791, the time of the founding of the first opera house in New Orleans, is necessary today.

Kmen’s book was the only text on early music in New Orleans for over two decades, until John Baron published “Music in New Orleans 1718-1792” in American Music. Baron’s article explored the earliest European music in New Orleans, from the vespers sung by La Salle’s accompanying priests in the seventeenth century to the foundation of the St. Peter Street Opera House in 1792. Baron drew heavily on Kmen’s work, extending research on early dance music and the development of opera. What Baron added was the music of the church and military. For this he researched church and military records in New Orleans archives that Kmen apparently overlooked. But, similar to his predecessors, Baron paints a heavily European picture of colonial New Orleans. With no mention of the Choctaw Indians who lived in the area before the French arrived, and indirect reference to music of Africans, found in Spanish military decrees banning slave dances on Sundays during church, Baron paints these populations out of his history of the city.

In his 1991 article “From Quadrille to Stomp: the Creole Origins of Jazz,” Thomas Fiehrer sets out to clarify misconceptions about music in early New Orleans history and their connection to an anachronistic concept of race. For Fiehrer, the projection of the American black/white racial dichotomy can not be successfully be applied to early New Orleans history. As a result of years of miscegenation between the French settlers and their African slaves, a large Creole population had developed in New Orleans, as was the case with every European colonial hinterland. It was this society, known as Free People of Color, who had developed a musical culture that enabled the development of jazz in the late nineteenth century. While Fiehrer doesn’t mention any musical evidence from the eighteenth century, his criticism of early jazz writings can be applied to previous work on early New Orleans music, which only touched briefly upon the Creole society.

New Orleans Jazz: A Revised History, a slightly enigmatic book, whose author is only known as R. Collins, appeared in 1996, and its sometimes fantastic theorization about the origins of jazz provide some useful notions of early New Orleans music. Collins, who might be Richard Collins, a New Orleans DJ who specializes in Caribbean music and music of New Orleans’ past, claimed that the Creole society, as a middle class between the European elite and the African slave populations, acted as a cultural and professional barrier. It was this Creole class, Collins posited, that was expected to take up artisan means of employment, as machinists, handcrafters, and tradespeople. As musicians were seen as artisans in French colonial society, the role of performer fell upon the Creole society. Collins also emphasizes the effect that politics had on the musical culture of the city. In 1743, Pierre-Cavagnal de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil became governor of the city and upon his arrival he quickly set out to reform New Orleans society in the form of the French Court of Louis XV. With this reformation came an increase in concerts, balls, and other forms of social ceremony. Collins cleverly notes the concurrence of this reorganization with the coming-of-age of the first generation of Creole artisans, asserting that both events interacted to create a pivotal growth in New Orleans musical culture. It is tempting to accept Collins’ far-fetched theories without some evidential support, but perhaps his book was not intended as the next step in academic research, but as a catalyst, meant to stir up the existing path of scholarly work.

The scholarly work on early New Orleans music is limited, both in source material and perspective. I argue that the history created by these scholars is a necessary step in the understanding of the historical period at hand, but that more work is needed. The history as it stands is dependent entirely upon the dominant European voice. A better understanding of music in European colonial New Orleans might be reached with two extensions in research method. A lessened dependence on physical documentation, and an accompanying expansion of theorization and speculation as to what probably existed might reveal alternate routes into the period that have not yet been investigated. Collins did this with New Orleans Jazz: A Revised History, as have others.

With a series of publications in the 1970s, Dena Epstein, Assistant Music Librarian at the University of Chicago, explored African music in early American and Caribbean colonial history (Epstein 1973, Epstein 1975, Epstein 1977). Epstein also depended primarily on European documentation, but her focus on musical culture of the African slaves, and a keen sense of the connections between various colonial communities and an exploration of the relationship between American artifacts and African musical traditions, provided a study of music that until that point had been overlooked. While Epstein didn’t look specifically at New Orleans, we can speculate about the city by looking at other French and Spanish Caribbean settlements, and in this respect her work is useful.

Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak posed the question, “Can the Subaltern speak?” in her influential essay of the same name in 1988. The question relates to colonial dominance, the agency of the colonialized subject, and the construction of history. While the debates instigated by her writing continue clarifying what is meant exactly by “Subaltern,” and how to introduce alternate voices into an intellectual dialogue steeped in the traditions of Imperial history, Spivak’s important note widely understood by scholars, that an awareness of intent and method is necessary in the continuation of scholarship, applies to the musicological historiography at issue here. In what ways can scholars of early New Orleans include the voice of the non-European in the dialogue of history without eliminating the historical validity that is overwhelmingly dependent upon European methods of documentation?

One possible solution is to look toward other fields of research, such as Native American studies. Scholars in this field have long struggled with the issue of integrating European linear historicism with Native American oral histories and “folklore” . The tribes that remained in southern Louisiana following the appearance of the Europeans is rarely mentioned in scholarship, and until proven otherwise, we must assume that interaction between the two societies is relevant to the construction of history. While some music scholars, most notably Frances Densmore in the 1930s, have looked at contemporary musical traditions of Native Americans from the Louisiana area, work has not yet been done on music of these cultures in the past, and this is one area of scholarship that is open to future study. It is my intention to learn more about the methodology of interpreting oral history in Western scholarship, possibly in order to understand the contemporaneous Native American cultures surrounding European colonial New Orleans.

Another solution is to understand non-European forms of oral transmission of history. This would entail a dialogue with descendents of the populations excluded from histories. This proves difficult in the current organization of American academia, centered on the written word. Perhaps, in addition to augmenting understanding of colonial history according to European modes of perception, a dialogue of this sort would provide an alternate method of looking at the past, separate from a linear progression of separate, interrelated events. But I digress, as my ignorance of non-Western modes of thought is approaching essentialization and the last thing that I intend to do in this paper is misrepresent non-Western culture.

At this point I would like to present the possible future of my research. I intend on continuing study of musical culture in European colonial New Orleans. I have met with faculty from the Ethnic Studies department and I have begun correspondences with history faculty specializing in American history in order to gain non-musicological perspectives of historiography. I will continue to research writings on New Orleans musical history by American authors, in order to present as accurate a picture of the entire academic scene as is possible. Perhaps, if time and funding permit, this project could be expanded to include non-American histories of New Orleans, which would entail research at French and Spanish archives. Once I have a clear understanding of what various histories have been constructed, and what materials have been used in these fabrications, I can attempt to combine them all, adding my own voice to the continual dialogue of historiography. Ultimately, if I extend this research chronologically into the nineteenth century, and beyond, I will come to new realizations, or at least theories, about the construction of jazz, which, although a fascinating and highly influential musical style in the past century, has a history that is clouded by misconceptions and vacuums of historical knowledge. I also hope to bring the intentions of postcolonial theorists and many cultural theorists to American musicology, namely the desire to expand the limits of what is considered valid historical evidence and the inclusion of all voices. If my future work is successful, I will form some methodology that I, along with others, can utilize in the study of other American musical cultures.

Appendix A

A Brief Annal of pre-Cortesian and European colonial New Orleans

• Inhabited by nomadic humans for over 10,000 years.
• Generally agreed that agrarian society began around 1000AD.
• Cultural center was Mobile, Alabama. Louisiana tribes were Chickasaw, Natchez, and Choctaw.
• Mid-1500s, Spanish conquistadors explored gulf shores.
• 1682 – Robert la Salle sails down the Mississippi, hoping to cut off British expansion and control the continent. He meets Chickasaws. He is killed by mutineers.
• 1699 – Le Moyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, are sent from Canada to permanently settle the Mississippi delta for France. They start a fledgling station at Mobile, then travel upstream looking for a letter left by one of La Salle’s men. Indians show them a portage to Lake Pontarchtrain.
• 1708 – Bienville brings first slaves to colony. Over the next 10 years, 5000 slaves will be imported, but only 2000 will survive.
• Bienville settles New Orleans in 1718, but continues runs Louisiana from Biloxi, pop.400 (20 slaves)
• 1719 – First German settlements in area.
• 1721 Census – [470 people]: 145 men; 65 women; 38 kids; 29 white servants; 172 Black slaves; 21 Indian slaves.
• 1722 – New Orleans named capital of Louisiana. Hurricane hits.
• 1722 – Father Pierre Francoise Xavier de Charlevoix sees settlers singing vespers
• 1724 – Code Noir established, banning Jews and Protestants and legalizing slavery.
• 1727 – More women arrive, including Ursuline nuns, bringing “elaborate religious music”
• 1727 – Death records: Charles Dore, fifer. Census lists: Jean Philipe Laprerie, drummer.
• 1728 – Sister Hachard mentions a popular song about the city.
• 1729 – Choctaw conspire to attack New Orleans, as Natchez attack Ft. Rosalie, but don’t. Word spreads in town and, fearing conspiracy between slaves and Choctaw, French force Slaves to attack Choctaw settlements.
• 1734 – Church bells mentioned in journals.
• 1735 – Labat sees nuns dancing the calenda in Martinique.
• 1743 – Pierre-Cavagnal de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil arrives from France, models New Orleans after French court. Mardi Gras festivals begin.
• 1754 – Louisiana soldiers and Indians fight Washington and British soldiers.
• 1755 – Seven Years War begins in North America. Acadian refugees sent south.
• 1758 – Vaudreuil moves to Canada.
• 1761 – population of New Orleans is 3,000.
• 1763 – After Seven Years War, France concedes land west of Mississippi and New Orleans to the Spanish.
• 1763 – Trumpeter accompanies town crier
• 1764 – 20 Acadians reach New Orleans. First printing press in city.
• 1766 – Spanish officials, lead by Antonio de Ulloa, arrive in New Orleans
• 1768 – citizens revolt and expel Ulloa.
• 1769 – 2600 Spanish soldiers, lead by Alejandro O’Reilly, return to rule with a martial fist. Leading revolutionaries are executed. Cabildo (city council) is formed. 1769 New Orleans Census: 3190 people; 1225 Slaves; 100 FPC. Louisiana has 13,500 residents.
• 1769 – Spanish military is accompanied by military music, noted by nuns.
• 1770 – 100 Drummers and fifers, according to census lists
• 1777-1782 – dance halls must exist, according to logic of 1792 Dance hall proposal.
• 1778 – 2 Singers, 1 musician in town, according to census lists
• 1779 – Spain sides with France and rebels in the Revolutionary War. Galvez’s campaign to take West Florida with 600 New Orleans soldiers.
• 1781 – Decree taken against free blacks “looking for dance halls”, according to military records
• 1785 – over 5,000 Acadians in Louisiana.
• 1786 – Law forbids dancing in public places on Sundays
• 1787 – Governer Miro holds a parade to entertain Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs, according to military records.
• Late 1700s – first newspaper mentions three types of balls
• 1788 – Louisiana population 42,346; 18,000 Slaves. New Orleans Census: 5,338 residents. A citywide fire destroys 856 buildings (77%) including the church and Cabildo house. Many historical documents are lost.
• 1789 – ascension of Carlos IV accompanied by orchestra, according to military records.
• 1790 – Painting by Jose Salazar shows family with flute, piano, and singers.
• 1791 – Following San-Domingue revolution, aristocratic French refugees enter New Orleans, bringing another cultural renaissance.
• 1791 – Singer, musician, two violinists, according to census lists.
• 1792 – White dance hall petitioned for reopening, according to military records.
• 1792 – Louis A. Henry builds a theater, opens it for a play.
• 1792 – Filibarto Farge presents a plan to the governor for a dance hall for whites.
• 1794 – Another fire destroys 40 city blocks. The city is practically rebuilt.
• American population west of the Appalachian Mts. is 400,000. All commerce flows through New Orleans. “Kaintocks” arrive in droves, despite repeated Spanish port closings.
• 1796 – Performance of Sylvain by Andre Gretry, according to journal of Pontalba.
• 1799 - a visitor sees slaves dancing on the levee
• 1799 – a private house receives permission to hold a Quadroon ball
• 1799 – second mention of an opera, Renaud d’Ast, by Nicolas Dalaqyrac, according to a playbill.
• 1800 – Pedro Barran asks council to reduce Quadroon dance halls.
• 1802 – funeral procession consists of friars and boys, according to the Journal of Dr. John Sibley
• 1803 – Spain returns Louisiana to France, which sells it to the US 21 days later. Population of New Orleans is 50% Creole, 25% Spanish.
• 1803 – a ball is held, according to journal of Laussat
• 1803 – a ball features minuets, waltzes, gallopades, boat dances, and character dances, according to Journal of Laussat
• 1804 – Slaves dancing on the levee, according to the journal of John Watson
• 1805 – first concert program features a full orchestra (clarinet, piano, violins)
• 1805 – 15 public ballrooms
• 1807 – the Journal of Christian Schultz who sees drums, two to eight feet in length.
• 1808 – funeral procession consists of military officers, a band, clergy, flag bearers and others, according to the Moniteur newspaper
• 1809 – calenda comes to New Orleans with Saint-Domingue refugees.
• 1810 – New Orleans Census: 24,552: 8,001 whites; 5,727 FPC; 10,324 Slaves.

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