Project Editor: Timothy Auten, History 470: Digital History, Spring 2008

Music and Performing Arts

Music is, and always has been, seen as the way the soul communicates to the conscious mind. Sounds and noises that have no definable alphabet or code are able to spark emotions in a listener simply by being organized correctly, and no two listeners have precisely the same experience. It is not just music that is able to speak directly to people, but the performing arts in general. A play that an audience knows is an artificial construction can still make that audience cry. It is no wonder, then, that music and the performing arts were of particular interest to upper-class Americans in the late 1800s. In this Gilded Age, with the expansion of industry and dramatic increases in population, the performing arts were growing in number and diversity just as quickly as the country itself. The rich of America, always wanting to distinguish themselves from other classes, preferred music and theatre that they believed to be much more complex than that which the common man listened to. They also liked older forms of presentation, such as the opera (Schrock, 198, 217).

As a result of this music preference, early commencements were held at the Centennial Opera House, located at 12th and O Streets in Lincoln (Wetzel, 42). This location had ideal acoustics for the types of music preferred by the upper class of the time, in addition to having ample seating for the persons in attendance. The University would often go to great lengths, in early years, to make its commencements pleasing to the ear, especially at the very first commencement, when a brass band from Omaha was driven to Lincoln for the event (Wetzel, 24). As time passed, and more talented young students came to the university, a School of Music was established. This expanded the musical opportunities available in the city, and even though the school was not fully an official part of the University, many UNL students also enrolled in classes taught there (Knoll, 36).

Nebraska Commencement Program, c. 1882	Nebraska Commencement Concert Program, c. 1889

For an event to be liked by upper-class Americans, it must feature music and performances to their liking, and plenty of them. The above two items are programs from the 1880's that show the importance of music to commencement. The first item, on the left, is a scan of an 1882 graduation day program. Looking closely, one can see that six of the fifteen items on the program are musical in nature, both instrumental and vocal. Music was used to break up the long stretches of speeches, and keep the crowd both awake and interested in commencement, a particularly important role as anyone who has attended a long series of speeches knows. The second, leftmost item is a copy of the 1889 Commencement Concert program. It is this program that best serves to tie UNL Commencement to upper class society, particularly in the actual selection of music. Closer study into each of the individual songs and musical selections chosen for the concert reveals that most of them came from Europe, and many of them are at least a decade or two older than the commencement concert itself. The instruments are almost exclusively violin and piano which are favored by the upper class. Combined, these two articles demonstrate that music itself was important to commencement, and that those who organized said commencement realized that most of their audience belonged to the upper class.