History
The first music performed in the area that is now Kansas was that of the Native Americans who lived there. However, little is known of these peoples' musical lives. The earliest documented music comes after settlement by Anglo-Americans in the 1850s.
One of the first musical works relating to Kansas was "Ho! For the Kansas Plains," a song written by James G. Clark in the 1850s, which mythologized the territory as the site of abolitionist battles during the Bleeding Kansas era. A representative lyric was "Ho! For the Kansas plains; Where men shall live in liberty; Free from the tyrant's chains." Along the same lines, some versions of the famous Civil War marching song "John Brown's Body" refer to John Brown's abolitionist activities in Kansas Territory during the same era.
Following the Civil War, as Kansas became known more for its cowboys, saloons and wide-open spaces, another notable song written in and about Kansas was "Home on the Range." It was penned in the state in the 1870s, and then spread throughout the American Old West as an unofficial anthem. It is now Kansas's official state song. The song established something of a template for Kansas music, and over the next several decades, music coming from Kansas remained in a similar folk or old-time music style, while lyrics referencing the state tended to focus on its open countryside.
In the 1920s, there was a radical break from this history as the Kansas City jazz scene developed in eastern Kansas. Coleman Hawkins, who introduced the tenor saxophone to jazz, was raised in Topeka, Kansas, and began touring in eastern Kansas by 1918 (at the age of 14). In the following years, Kansas native Charlie Parker also came to prominence in Kansas City. Finally, around the same time, Kansan Stan Kenton likewise became notable as a jazz band leader and pianist.
Read more about this topic: Music Of Kansas
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