Music composition, publication, and performance in the United States during the antebellum period developed and expanded from localized practices to a recognized and influential national culture, aided by the rise of new technologies in printing, manufacturing, and commercial distribution. Following the wars for independence from Britain, individual states retained their strongly differentiated ethnic and religious populations, but by the end of the Civil War—despite the divide between North and South—recognizably "American" forms of music not only spanned geographic expanses but also had even begun to represent the United States abroad.

Music was always heard live, and was thus ephemeral. Other than the barrel organ and music box, no sound machines existed until late in the century (Thomas Edison patented his "talking machine" in 1877). For most Americans music was ubiquitous and casual, performed or encountered in the homes...