Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

March, waltz, polka, and hoochie koochie your way back to the 1893 World’s Fair with Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, a new recording of vintage sheet music from Lake Forest College Press.

Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, has assembled a fascinating collection of 18 pieces of music written for or about the Columbian Exposition. A trio of musicians (pianist Chris White, violinist Kate Carter, and baritone Brad Jungwirth) perform the sheet music scores. Except for a few popular songs included, most of these pieces have not before been recorded, and few may have even been heard since the era of the great fair.

The recording is part of a larger digital humanities project to preserve music from the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, supported by Digital Chicago: Unearthing History and Culture, a four-year grant at Lake Forest College funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A “Souvenir Music” website includes the 18 songs of the album in streaming format, along with liner notes and lyrics. Another part of the website features a map of the Midway Plaisance, with embedded tunes at corresponding attraction locations.

Meyer notes that “the souvenir music portrayed in this project and corresponding album has very little to do with the music actually heard at the fair; instead, the music on this album capitalized on the Fair craze in Chicago and across the country.” Sheet music was a popular souvenir, and many of the songs evoke the popular attractions centered along the Midway Plaisance.

The mile-long collection of international villages, rides, animal shows and food is the subject of Dennis Mackin and W.T. Jefferson’s song “Midway Plaisance” (track 11). The lyrics begin with an idyllic “I shall never forget its name” but finishes with an exhausted visitor broke and alone. Gustav Luders “An Afternoon in Midway Plaisance” (track 16) is a particularly fun collection of 8 topical tunes that invite the listener to walk the length of the Midway.

The first track on the album is probably also the most familiar. “The Streets of Cairo; or, The Poor Little Country Maid,” which came to be known as “the snake charmer song” or “hoochie koochie” dance, has been used countless times in popular culture as a musical cue for the exotic. Legend has it that entrepreneur Sol Bloom wrote, but failed to copyright,  the tune.

The biggest attraction of the Midway was a most popular subject for song writers. Tracks 8-10 feature “The Ferris Wheel March and Two-Step” by Samuel Lapin, “The Ferris Wheel Souvenir Waltz-Polka” by G. Valisi (which includes some charming lyrics “Oh! That was nice, love / Let’s go it twice, love. / Ah, yes just one time more, / We’ll have another soar.”) and “The Song of the “Ferris Wheel” by George Schleiffarth.

Other pieces reflect images of the larger White City. Composer Lillian Mathewson dedicated her “Columbian Polka” (track 12) to Mrs. Bertha Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Managers, while “The Viking March” by H.C. Verner evokes the Viking Ship exhibit and features a picture of the Norwegian attraction on the sheet music cover.

Marches were popular musical form in Victorian America, and this album includes several others. Frank Drayton’s “Columbus; or, The World’s Fair Grand March” (track 14) and Adam Geibel’s “The World’s Fair, Or, Chicago Dudes’ Grand March” (track 15) follow Victor Vogel’s “Chicago World’s Exposition Grand March” (track 13), which Prof. Meyer observes “anticipates the advent of Ragtime” just a few years later.

Listeners who prefer 3/4 meter may enjoy the waltzes such as Edward Holst’s “Echoes from the White City” (track 17) and “Chicago Day Waltz” by Giuseppe Valisi, which celebrates the most popular day of the Columbian Exposition, when 751,026 paid visitors (then the largest peaceful assemblage in human history) gathered on the fairgrounds to honor the 22nd anniversary of the Great Fire of October 9, 1871.

A few songs selected have only slim connections to the fair. Released as commemorative Columbian Exhibition sheet music editions, they highlight the international diversity of the Exposition. Mexican composer I.E. Hernandez’s “Reja Dorada, or The Golden Gate Polka” (Track 4) is followed by a trio of Italian songs, the popular“Finiculi-Finicula,” with “Farewell to Naples,” and “Santa Lucia.”

The final track of the album is “The Last Day of the Fair,” by Frank Swain. The tragic assassination of Mayor Carter Harrison just 3 days before the closing of the Columbian Exposition does not invade this “waltz brilliant” in the least. Any melancholy we may hear in its tune must be from thoughts of the imminent vanishing of the Dream City.

Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 is available for purchase a CD from Northwestern University Press and as a CD or mp3 download from Amazon, CDBaby, and iTunes. Columbian Exposition enthusiasts are sure to enjoy these rare musical treats from 1893.

Prof. Meyer will be presenting a talk on this project at the Chicago History Museum on Tuesday, May 29 at 6 pm.