page_title: Timeline of music in the United States (1820–49)
section_title: 1849
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of music in the United States (1820–49) / 1849
caption_attribution_description: Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Library of Congress description: "Louis M. Gottschalk".
context_page_description: This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1820 to 1849.
context_section_description: The first substantial wave of Chinese immigration to the United States begins, inspired by the California Gold Rush. The vast majority of these immigrants are from the coastal southern region of Guangdong; as a result, the dominant forms of Chinese-American music will remain Cantonese opera and other folk songs, as well as the Taishan tradition of muyulmuk'yu song.
  The German-American musician Hermann Kotzschmar moves to Portland, Maine; he will play a major role in that city's musical life, and make it a "thriving music center".
  Louis Moreau Gottschalk, then living in Paris, composes Bamboula, La savane, Le Bananier and Le Mancenillier, all based on Afro-American melodies; these works helped establish Gottschalk as a "musical representative of the Old World in the New". He will become the "first American concert artist and composer to achieve international renown."
  The ethnic music festival, Saengerfest, is first held around Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky. Later known as the Cincinnati May Festival, it will become a major regional event.
  Stephen Foster writes "Nelly Was a Lady", the first American song to treat an African American woman as a lady worthy of respect.
  William Wells Brown' The Anti-Slavery Hope is a notable collection of most of the abolitionist songs in circulation at the time.
  A conflict between the supporters of a British and an American Shakespearean actor leads to the Astor Place Riots in New York City. Popular music historian Donald Clarke calls this a major turning point in American music history, marking the beginning of a split between highbrow and lowbrow entertainment and the beginning of specialized performances rather than pastiches and melodramas attempting to appeal to all consumers.
caption: Louis Moreau Gottschalk.
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