HISTORICAL & CULTURAL NOTES
While it would be impossible to provide in one concert a fair sampling of the vast cultural diversity present in the 19th century American West, below is information regarding the cultures we were able to include today, and some chronological context.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the U.S and provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion.
Georgia Gold Rush of 1829 began with the discovery of gold in Georgia, much on Cherokee land.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 began eleven years of forcing 100,000 Indigenous People from at least 18 tribes to areas west of the Mississippi. Many of these were members of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole) who had assimilated with their European-American neighbors, forming constitutional governments, adopting western dress and agrarian and market economies. The Cherokee brought their case before the Supreme Court and won (Worcester v. Georgia, 1832), but Pres. Andrew Jackson declined to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision. Thousands of Native American lives were lost on these journeys, dying of exposure, starvation, illness, and exhaustion; one-fourth of the Cherokee population perished on the Trail of Tears between 1838-1839. For more info: www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/what-happened-on-the-trail-of-tears.htm
The Chickasaw Nation is headquartered in Ada, Oklahoma, having been removed from eastern areas including present-day Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Today, it is the 12th largest Indigenous nation in the United States, with a population exceeding 80,000 citizens. Traditional Chickasaw music is community-centric: involving communal call-and-response, stomp dancing, and shell-shaking.
49ers – The California Gold Rush lasted from 1848–1855, and brought more than 300,000 new people to California. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, thousands also came from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. Those searching for gold were nicknamed 49ers, as 1849 was a peak year, and about half of prospectors came to California by sea, the other half over land via the California Trail. The newly developed music publication industry, which rose to prominence during the Civil War selling sheet music lionizing both the northern and southern causes, was quick to capitalize on the gold rush through tragi-comic songs written about 49ers and their travails, and almost no folk music is ascribed specifically to gold rush culture.
Homesteaders – Nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders from 1862-1930; most homesteads were west of the Mississippi River. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. Native Americans were not allowed to file land claims under the Homestead Acts unless they renounced their tribal citizenship. The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which affirmed birthright citizenship for Chinese Americans, opened the Homestead Acts to Asian Americans. Some settlers in the Dakota Territory, and later in South Dakota and North Dakota, who gained land through the Homestead Acts were Jewish or Muslim. Jewish homesteaders were largely Russian Jews fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire.
Ellis Island—From From 1892 to 1954, about 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there; according to one estimate, two-fifths of Americans may be descended from these immigrants.
Cowboy Songs—Cowboys sang constantly to keep the cattle calm; singing settled nervous cattle at night, and helped prevent stampedes. The integrated cowboy posse melded their distinct music traditions together, and the American Cowboy Song was born. Cattle drives were crucial to the cattle industry until the invention of barbed wire and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad made them obsolete.
Last Updated: July 24, 2026 by testadmin
2026 THE WIDE COUNTRY: Songs Going West
19th century paintings of the Old West epically depict the wide country: achingly beautiful vistas full of equal parts promise and danger. Overlooking such a landscape, Katherine Lee Bates penned her poem “America the Beautiful,” echoing the promises of our country’s founding yet to be kept: that in this wide country there can be space for all, but too often there isn’t. It is in this tension between good promises and imperfect reality that we offer today’s concert.
The music of the Old West tells a very colorful story. When designing this concert, we wrestled with how to fairly sample not only the vast cultural diversity present in 19th century migrations to the American West, but also the range of human experiences held therein: hope, grief, promise, loss, joy, cruelty, love, despair, mercy. It did not take long to see this would be impossible. Instead, our hope is that the small taste offered today will make us all hungry for more.
Today’s theme was inspired by a few sentences in John A. Lomax’s 1912 Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads: some of the most famous songs in the book—including “Git Along Little Dogies” and “Home on the Range“—were sourced from African-American cowboys, a fact we’d encountered nowhere else. It surprised us to learn that cowhand posses were the first documented racially-integrated work teams in the U.S. with white and Black laborers on comparable footing, and after long months on the trail singing away stampedes from the minds of ornery cattle (a real thing!) a union emerged from this crucible of white Southern and African-American music: the American cowboy song.
The unveiling of these origins served as an awfully powerful invitation to continue exploring the 19th century world of people migrating to the American West: some who came through Ellis Island, some who came east from China, some who were promised 40 acres and a mule, some searching for gold, some building a railroad, and some forced to walk west from their homes at gunpoint.
A deeply important aspect of this concert is the Native American music presented. The intersection of European music notation and ethically-sourced Native American music is very small, and we took great care in evaluating each selection for authenticity, ethical sourcing, correct attribution, and performance appropriateness for a non-tribal choir like ours. We are very grateful that Native composers are bringing music from their cultures to be experienced by those outside their communities, and we especially thank Elisa Harkins, performing artist and citizen of the Muscogee Nation, for her expert guidance.
HISTORICAL & CULTURAL NOTES
While it would be impossible to provide in one concert a fair sampling of the vast cultural diversity present in the 19th century American West, below is information regarding the cultures we were able to include today, and some chronological context.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the U.S and provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion.
Georgia Gold Rush of 1829 began with the discovery of gold in Georgia, much on Cherokee land.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 began eleven years of forcing 100,000 Indigenous People from at least 18 tribes to areas west of the Mississippi. Many of these were members of the “Five Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee-Creek, Seminole) who had assimilated with their European-American neighbors, forming constitutional governments, adopting western dress and agrarian and market economies. The Cherokee brought their case before the Supreme Court and won (Worcester v. Georgia, 1832), but Pres. Andrew Jackson declined to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision. Thousands of Native American lives were lost on these journeys, dying of exposure, starvation, illness, and exhaustion; one-fourth of the Cherokee population perished on the Trail of Tears between 1838-1839. For more info: www.nps.gov/trte/learn/historyculture/what-happened-on-the-trail-of-tears.htm
The Chickasaw Nation is headquartered in Ada, Oklahoma, having been removed from eastern areas including present-day Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Today, it is the 12th largest Indigenous nation in the United States, with a population exceeding 80,000 citizens. Traditional Chickasaw music is community-centric: involving communal call-and-response, stomp dancing, and shell-shaking.
49ers – The California Gold Rush lasted from 1848–1855, and brought more than 300,000 new people to California. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, thousands also came from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. Those searching for gold were nicknamed 49ers, as 1849 was a peak year, and about half of prospectors came to California by sea, the other half over land via the California Trail. The newly developed music publication industry, which rose to prominence during the Civil War selling sheet music lionizing both the northern and southern causes, was quick to capitalize on the gold rush through tragi-comic songs written about 49ers and their travails, and almost no folk music is ascribed specifically to gold rush culture.
Homesteaders – Nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders from 1862-1930; most homesteads were west of the Mississippi River. Any adult who had never taken up arms against the federal government of the United States could apply. Women and immigrants who had applied for citizenship were eligible. Native Americans were not allowed to file land claims under the Homestead Acts unless they renounced their tribal citizenship. The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which affirmed birthright citizenship for Chinese Americans, opened the Homestead Acts to Asian Americans. Some settlers in the Dakota Territory, and later in South Dakota and North Dakota, who gained land through the Homestead Acts were Jewish or Muslim. Jewish homesteaders were largely Russian Jews fleeing pogroms in the Russian Empire.
Ellis Island—From From 1892 to 1954, about 12 million immigrants arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey were processed there; according to one estimate, two-fifths of Americans may be descended from these immigrants.
Cowboy Songs—Cowboys sang constantly to keep the cattle calm; singing settled nervous cattle at night, and helped prevent stampedes. The integrated cowboy posse melded their distinct music traditions together, and the American Cowboy Song was born. Cattle drives were crucial to the cattle industry until the invention of barbed wire and the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad made them obsolete.
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