{"id":690,"date":"2019-03-26T09:08:23","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T14:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/?p=690"},"modified":"2023-10-05T14:02:23","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T19:02:23","slug":"students-investigate-a-deeper-dive-into-h-s-perkinss-the-nightingale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/2019\/03\/26\/students-investigate-a-deeper-dive-into-h-s-perkinss-the-nightingale\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Investigate: A Deeper Dive into H. S. Perkins’s The Nightingale<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

William Oscar Perkins and Henry Southwick Perkins, The Nightingale: A Choice Collection of Songs, Chants and Hymns, Designed for the Use of Juvenile Classes, Public Schools, and Seminaries; Containing Also a Complete and Concise System of Elementary Instruction<\/em> (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1860)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

by C. A. Norling<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"h
Title page of Perkins’s The Nightingale<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Advertised in University catalogues as providing \u201cpeculiar advantages to students,\u201d the University of Iowa\u2019s first music courses utilized a repertoire grounded in larger, nineteenth-century trends in American music education and represent the subject\u2019s institutional foundation at the University prior to the establishment of a permanent School of Music.1<\/sup> The academic sessions, held annually at the local Normal Academy of Music<\/a>, were created to \u201cgive complete courses of instruction\u201d in music performance, \u201cboth vocal and instrumental.”2<\/sup> Written in part by the institution\u2019s founding principal Henry Southwick Perkins, The Nightingale<\/em> demonstrates a direct connection to the beginnings of American musical education itself. Originating in the eighteenth century, singing schools flourished throughout the United States with the use of simple songs arranged in three or four parts, a method standardized by eminent music educator Lowell Mason of Boston in the 1840s.3<\/sup> Perkins himself studied under Mason and operated singing schools nationwide and, as such, prefaced his manual with a course of instruction for music beginners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond its pedagogical contents, The Nightingale <\/em>features nearly two hundred pages of part-songs composed by prominent American composers that often reflect nationalistic themes. From the patriotic \u201cHail Columbia\u201d and \u201cOur Country\u2019s Flag\u201d to hymns by Perkins himself, the academy founded its day-to-day music instruction on domestic educational methods and a national repertoire.4<\/sup> Perkins\u2019s own patriotic anthem, \u201cMy Native Hills\u201d (shown here), is descriptive of both its American surroundings and democratic ideals when it asserts that \u201cmy native hills are thine.\u201d In addressing the goals of the volume, Perkins wrote that the selections are \u201cpleasing and practical in character . . . [and] may contribute largely to the pleasure and education of the rising public,\u201d a testament to egalitarian impulses of the nation\u2019s then-budding public music education.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"page
Note the penciled annotation in the title of this song from Perkins’s Nightingale<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

1<\/sup> Catalogue of the State University of Iowa for the Year 1866-67<\/em> (Davenport, IA: Lush, Lane & Co., 1866), 47.
2<\/sup> Henry Southwick Perkins, \u201cThe Iowa State Normal Academy of Music at Iowa City,\u201d Annals of Iowa<\/em> 1872, no. 1 (1872): 62.<\/a>
3<\/sup> Edward B. Birge, History of Public School Music in the United States<\/em> (Washington D.C.: Music Educator\u2019s National Conference, 1966), 26.
4<\/sup> Foundational American music historian Oscar Sonneck wrote extensively regarding the origins of \u201cHail Columbia\u201d and overtly draws ideological associations between the anthem and the \u201cStar Spangled Banner.\u201d Oscar Sonneck, \u201cCritical Notes on the origin of \u2018Hail Columbia,\u2019\u201d Sammelb\u00e4nde der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft<\/em> 3, no. 1 (1901): 139.
5<\/sup> William Oscar Perkins and Henry Southwick Perkins, The Nightingale: A Choice Collection of Songs, Chants and Hymns, Designed for the Use of Juvenile Classes, Public Schools, and Seminaries; Containing Also a Complete and Concise System of Elementary Instruction<\/em> (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1860), [3].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/a>About the Author<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"cody<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Cody Norling is a PhD student in historical musicology at the University of Iowa. Apart from his research on American operatic traditions, he maintains research interests Midwestern History and has contributed writing to the Annals of Iowa and a forthcoming volume on nineteenth-century identity formation in the Midwest. Cody is currently the instructor for a course titled \u201cMidwestern Identities\u201d in the University of Iowa\u2019s Department of Rhetoric.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Oscar Perkins and Henry Southwick Perkins, The Nightingale: A Choice Collection of Songs, Chants and Hymns, Designed for the Use of Juvenile Classes, Public Schools, and Seminaries; Containing Also a Complete and Concise System of Elementary Instruction (Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1860) by C. A. Norling Advertised in University catalogues as providing \u201cpeculiar advantages toContinue reading “Students Investigate: A Deeper Dive into H. S. Perkins’s The Nightingale<\/i>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,29],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/rbml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}