Domestic Harmonies: Musical Activity in Southwestern Ontario, 1880-1920

This dissertation studies domestic musical activity in Southwestern Ontario between 1880 and 1920. It argues that home musical activity was linked to social, cultural, commercial, and even political influences in the public realm. Using Toronto, Hamilton, London, and Guelph as sample communities, it investigates the prescriptive discourses surrounding music making as well as the more variegated realm of actual behaviour. The structure of the chapters mirrors the study’s overall argument, moving back and forth over the culturally constituted public-private divide. The discussion considers the influence of parlour spaces, gendered prescriptions, ideals of refinement, and the mediating influence of individual personality and situation. It also examines instrument purchase, music education, sheet music repertoire, and the introduction of the player piano. The final two chapters of this study address the Great War’s effect on the status quo, stressing themes of continuity as well as change in musical practices. The dissertation concludes with a short summary of the post-war decline of both the Canadian piano industry and amateur music making in general. Unbeknownst to contemporaries, by the year 1920, domestic musicianship had passed its peak.