Charivaris, Cowbellions, and Sheet Iron Bands: Nineteenth-Century Rough Music in New Orleans

By Mark Mcknight

In its edition of Friday, March 16, 1838, the New Orleans Daily Picayune announced that "a happy couple, who were married last night on Camp Street, near Julia, were treated to a magnificent serenade, both vocal and instrumental." This statement may seem rather inconsequential—we might even question the newsworthiness of such an item. The writer, however, then elaborates on the significance of this particular matrimonial celebration: "The way that concord was produced by tin-kettles, horns, cowbells, gongs, &c, &c, was nobody's business." We find a similar report in the Picayune for December 19, 1837, in which a party marched up Camp Street with all sorts of rattletraps and instruments, from tin pails to stage horns, and from cowbells to iron hoops. The writer reported that each member "played his own tune, and his own hook, kept his own time, and had an instrument, we presume, adapted to his own genius. The quantity [of noise] would drown out the loudest efforts of the celebrated Boston Band in full blast." While the objects of this parade were not known, there is little doubt that those assembled were on their way to serenade some unsuspecting couple with a charivari.