SOUNDING CHILDHOOD by Alisa Clapp-Itnyre
Welcome to SOUNDING CHILDHOOD!
A website devoted to children's 19th-century musicThis is an academic website stemming from my research and publications focused on Victorian children's music. Children were just as musical as adults during the 19th century, but little has been done to explore their music. Neither was there the capability or interest in recording nineteenth-century children's songs or their singing.
This website attempts to fill this musical void. As part of the Sounding Victorian collaborative (est. Dr. Phyllis Weliver, 2016) and in collaboration with colleagues at my institution, Indiana University East, in Richmond, Indiana, I have organized camps and choirs of young people since 2015 to learn these older songs so that we can hear what children over 100 years ago were singing. This music for Victorian children was quite diverse. Some of it was used for play (taught by adults, adapted by children, like nursery rhymes and folksongs), much of it was taught in church and school (hymns and school songs), and by the end of the century, Christmas carols were sung extensively during the holiday. Some songs were even written and used politically, like patriotic numbers and those for the animal-rights movement (Bands of Mercy songs). Click the title links below which will take you to information, scores, pictures, & musical recordings within each of SEVEN musical genres and HERE for how to use this site.
I hope you will enjoy this re-created musical experience, which will allow you to experience the sounds of childhood from another era. As you see by the pictures, even our contemporary children relish re-visiting the Victorian past: feigning photographic seriousness, dressing in period clothes, and of course singing these engaging songs! The Menu (upper left) will navigate to them as well.
Dr. Alisa Clapp-Itnyre
Professor of English
Indiana University East
Richmond, IN
About the Author and List of Publications
Email me with any questions! aclappit@iu.edu