Music in New Orleans, 1718-1792

Abstract

With the opening of its first theater in 1792, New Orleans emerged as a prominent musical center, and the history of music in the Crescent City from that year on is well documented.' Information about the place of music in New Orleans before 1792, however, is sparse.2 Compared with the continuous grand tradition of public concerts and operas after 1792, earlier music making was mostly private or, when public, usually ceremonial. There were no newspapers to announce and review concerts, and contemporary diarists were more concerned with politics, wars, economics, and personalities than with the arts. Nevertheless, as this article will attempt to show, evidence suggests that music held an important place in the early years of the city's history. New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean Baptiste Lemoyne, sieur de Bienville (1680-1768). Bienville's entourage included chaplains, whose singing of High Mass would have been the first organized music performed by Europeans in New Orleans.3 Before Bienville's arrival music was sung and played by the native Indians, but this is prehistory. Indeed, one can only hypothesize about the music in the new settlement before 1727. No musicians are listed among the very earliest French, German, African, and Indian settlers, yet folk, religious, and military music had to be a regular part of their lives. No priests resided in the city as of June 1, 1718, and, although provision was made for one in 1719, there is no evidence of a resident priest before 1722.4 But religious music (i.e., principally High Mass and Te Deums) would have been performed by chaplains on board ships temporarily anchored in New Orleans harbor or by laymen. Our first reference to music in southern