# How Long Were 19th Century Songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520 "2004-06-15T19:07:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/1 "2004-06-15T19:07:13Z")
I’ve just started [Playback: From the Victrola to Mp3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Money, by Mark Coleman](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306809842/qid%3D1087324971/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-8109304-8302463), which looks to be fun and fascinating. Even in the first few pages, though, Coleman has already said a variation of the following several times: > [@](#): > > Technology to a large extent determines what we hear and how we hear it. The compact (three or four minutes) duration of the popular song is the enduring result of technology devised by Thomas Edison and others. Since playback is brief, popular songs must be instantly recognizable. OK, we can all agree that _since_ the invention of playback machines the length of popular music has been artificially limited. But wasn’t most popular music of the 19th century already fairly short? Wasn’t the popular music that came from vaudeville, traveling minstrel shows, marching bands, folk music and Americana, ethnic dances, ballads and all the other sources composed to be short and memorable? (Barring the occasional 100-verse comic folk epic.) Most people can’t manage a fast dance of more than a few minutes at a time. Fairly short is relative to the hour-long symphony, of course. The question that I have is how short short is. Three or four minutes? Eight minutes? Ten? Did playback machines really cut the length of popular music by half or more, or was the technology just following the ordinary length of music at the time? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/2 "2004-06-15T19:20:14Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#): > > Fairly short is relative to the hour-long symphony, of course. Slight hijack - it’s reputed (yeah, I know, urban legend) that the 74 minutes running time of the original standard for CDs was set to accommodate Beethoven’s ninth symphony. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/3 "2004-06-15T19:46:01Z")
A quick look at a couple of 19th Century popular songs (e.g., Stephen Foster), show the sheet music ran 3-5 pages, and the longer version had multiple part harmony. It would take around three minutes to sing. Remember, too, that Edison’s singers were usually using existing songs, not creating them for the phonograph. Finally, if songs routinely ran longer in Edison’s time, why wouldn’t he just use a longer cylinder to fit them in? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/4 "2004-06-15T20:01:14Z")
Well, there’s the Minute Waltz, of course. And the Blue Danube – that’s about 1:20. And many of the classical dance pieces seem to be about that range – between 2 minutes up to about 4 or 5 minutes. And all those were long before the influence of gramaphone, LP record, CD, etc. technology. So I would expect it is more related to the stamina of the average dancing couple (especially given the costumes worn back then) than to technology. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/5 "2004-06-16T04:26:49Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Well, there’s the Minute Waltz, of course. And the Blue Danube – that’s about 1:20. I’ve got three recordings of the Blue Danube, and the shortest is over 7 minutes long. And besides, neither of these is a “song.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-were-19th-century-songs/250520/6 "2004-06-16T18:11:07Z")
So you’re all basically confirming my notion that the author is full of it. I’ll keep that in mind as I get farther into the book. Thanks, all.