2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Popular Poetry and Popular Music in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America
| Project/Area Number |
17520145
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
SAWAIRI Yoji Tohoku University, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Associate Professor, 大学院国際文化研究科, 助教授 (20261539)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Keywords | American Popular Poetry / American Popular Music / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / Hutchinson Family / Excelsior / Upidee / College Songs / American Literature |
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| Research Abstract |
For two years, this research has sought to clarify how the popular poetry of nineteenth-century America was intertwined, and even resonant, with its popular music.
During its first year, this project studied the Hutchinson Family, one of the most popular chorus bands of the mid-century that led the vogue of "Singin' Families" in the States. Particularly interesting was that they sometimes set to music popular works by famous poets, such as "Excelsior" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the most celebrated poet of the nineteenth century. Their "Excelsior" sounds exceedingly tedious to today's listeners. It lacks catchy melodious lines as well as pleasing rhythms. In fact, even some critics were reminded of a monotonous "chant." This apparently dull song, however, was so well received that it became one of their representative songs. Given the popularity of this song, it can be said that in the mid-nineteenth century when poetry was flourishing as a popular art, there were songs to be generally regarded superb if only the poem was attractive even though the melody and the rhythm were not.
College songs were investigated during the second year of this research project. In particular, it mainly dealt with the song "Upidee," a student song that was favored at Harvard from the middle of the nineteenth century through the early twentieth. This song also used Longfellow's "Excelsior" as its lyric, though the refrain was changed to nonsense "Upidee, Upida." Originally, Harvard students sang "Upidee" extemporaneously to mock particular students and professors. Its lyric, accordingly, was so variable that when they wanted to sing together in chorus, Longfellow's poem was employed as a fixed lyric. Being well-known, "Excelsior" was able to not only reinforce the absurdity of the refrain but also serve as a fixative to stabilize the fluidity.
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Research Products
(10 results)
