Temple of Music
Music has always been popular in the Crescent City, and since the nineteenth century, there have been many stores that sold instruments and sheet music. Advertising the newest styles and latest technologies, retailers imported musical instruments from Paris, London, New York, and Boston. In the nineteenth century, pianos were a status symbol necessary for any middle-class or wealthy home, and merchants were happy to meet the high demand. Many New Orleans music dealers were agents for the major piano manufacturers, including Pleyel, Chickering, and Nunns & Clark. The largest music stores, such as Werlein’s and Grunewald’s, were also publishers of sheet music, selling popular patriotic songs, ballads, and hits of the latest dance crazes.
A. E. Blackmar (active 1860–88)
Vermont native Armand Edward Blackmar moved to the South in the 1850s to teach music at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. By 1860, he was in business with his brother Henry, selling “musical merchandise of every description” in New Orleans. Blackmar was one of the largest publishers of sheet music in the South, especially during the early years of the Civil War. He published a wide variety of music under his own name and various pseudonyms, including the first edition of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” in 1861.
Werlein’s (1835–1990s)
Philip Werlein, a Bavarian immigrant, started his first store in Vickburg, Mississippi, where he was teaching music, in 1842. He moved to New Orleans about a decade later and took over the store of W. T. Mayo, one of the leading piano dealers and music publishers in the city. Werlein’s store and the publishing business grew to be among the largest in the South. He was the first to publish the song “Dixie” in 1860, and he put out a number of other Confederate songs during the Civil War. Werlein’s music store was carried on by several generations of his descendants. In the 1880s, the company purchased a large building on Baronne Street that served as the music store as well as a concert hall. The store was later moved to Canal Street, where it held a prominent position for most of the twentieth century. Many New Orleans musicians purchased their instruments from Werlein’s, including Kid Ory, Fats Domino, and Louis Armstrong.
