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4 - Repertoire

Navigating the Mainstream

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2021

Oskar Cox Jensen
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
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Summary

This chapter explores singers’ repertoires, from whence they were derived, and their networks of dissemination, and centres on my formulation of a cultural ‘mainstream’ of songs. I begin by placing the notoriously mixed repertoires available to us within a theoretical framework of the miscellaneous as a form of cultural consumption, before moving beyond specific lists of songs to a consideration of historical process. I examine the remarkable ways in which singers appropriated tunes from other cultural spaces, and the varying methods by which a lyric might be sourced. I look at the question of circulation both within and without London, and the movement of songs between different physical and social sites, demonstrating in particular the overwhelming musical importance of the theatre to mainstream song culture. I construct an image of this ‘mainstream’ as a working model for understanding how songs were produced, performed, and consumed in an age before sound recording: a model that necessarily takes issue with Peter Burke’s influential theory of the separation of elite and popular cultures by 1800. As the century progressed and harmonic forms of songwriting, informed by keyboards, came to prominence, this cultural model was no longer tenable, and newly-literate workers with a slightly improved disposable income began to consume songs in both physical and performative forms that bypassed the ballad-singer.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Repertoire
  • Oskar Cox Jensen, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Ballad-Singer in Georgian and Victorian London
  • Online publication: 05 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108908108.008
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  • Repertoire
  • Oskar Cox Jensen, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Ballad-Singer in Georgian and Victorian London
  • Online publication: 05 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108908108.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Repertoire
  • Oskar Cox Jensen, University of East Anglia
  • Book: The Ballad-Singer in Georgian and Victorian London
  • Online publication: 05 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108908108.008
Available formats
×