European Music and Dances

Abstract

Carnival and balls were very popular among all social classes, free or enslaved, before and after the Civil War, providing work for many Creole musicians. Concerts and opera were also popular and, in the 1830s, a Société Philharmonique was founded by Creoles of Color (as they were then called), while Edmond Dédé, Lucien and Sydney Lambert, Samuel Snaër, and Basile Barès emerged as talented Black and Creole composers. Inspired by Creole songs he had heard a child, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (a White Creole, 1829–1869) composed pieces, such as the Louisiana quartet in which he used the habanera and other syncopated rhythms, that are now generally considered as precursors of ragtime—and by extension, early jazz. Military music also provided working opportunities for Creole soldiers and musicians, and paved the way to many brass bands active in New Orleans after the Civil War.