Tin Pan Opera: Operatic Novelty Songs in the Ragtime Era - Paperback

by Larry Hamberlin (Author)

Though the distance between opera and popular music seems immense today, a century ago opera was an integral part of American popular music culture, and familiarity with opera was still a part of American "cultural literacy." During the Ragtime era, hundreds of humorous Tin Pan Alley songs centered on operatic subjects-either directly quoting operas or alluding to operatic characters and vocal stars of the time. These songs brilliantly captured the moment when popular music in America transitioned away from its European operatic heritage, and when the distinction between low- and high-brow "popular" musical forms was free to develop, with all its attendant cultural snobbery and rebellion.

Author Biography

Larry Hamberlin is an Associate Professor of music at Middlebury College, Vermont, where he teaches courses in European and American popular and classical music.