HOW TO BE A 19TH-CENTURY FAN guest blog by blondviolinist

 

 What would you do, if you were an American music fan in the mid 19th-century, and your favorite Norwegian violinist was coming to town on a concert tour? Why, write a poem and send it in to the newspaper, of course! 

I've been doing a lot of music history research lately, looking through 19th-century newspapers for articles about famous violinists. Some of the research is dry and boring, but some of it has been delightful. My favorite find so far has been a handful of poems published in US n...