Slobin Co-Edits Book on Albany-Based Music in 1850

Mark Slobin, the Richard K. Winslow Professor of Music, is the co-editor of Emily’s Songbook: Popular Music in 1850s Albany, published by A-R Editions, 2011.

This publication is the first-ever facsimile edition of a “binder’s volume” a personal collection of sheet music, in this case that of a nineteenth-century young woman, Emily Esperanza McKissick of Albany, N.Y,, who must have actively used her volume with her friends and family and who became a long-lived music teacher.Essays by leading American-music specialists illuminate the general themes of this unique volume and also provide detailed information (with copious reference to period source materials) about the McKissick family, musical life in mid-century Albany, the publication history of the forty-six songs, and an analysis of the penciled annotations made by Emily on the music itself. The complete binder’s volume of Emily’s favorite songs—some common, some rare—is presented, cover to cover, as a photographic facsimile.