Jingle Belle?

In my two most recent posts, I discussed “Christmas in July,” and interestingly, I still have one Christmas-related loose-end to tie up related to my recent Dickinson-themed road trip to NYC, Boston and Amherst.

Back on July 26, I published a post entitled “The Man Who Blogged Too Much,” HERE. That post covers time I spent in Medford, Massachusetts, and one bit of trivia related to the town is that in 1850, James Pierpont wrote the song “Jingle Bells” in the Simpson Tavern.  I included a picture of a plaque at the site of the tavern to commemorate Pierpont’s composition, and I mentioned, “There is much more to the story of ‘Jingle Bells’ that I will cover in some future post.”  Well, here we are at that future post.

One thing the plaque does not indicate is that Pierpont dedicated the song to John Ordway, a Boston doctor, composer and organizer of a troupe of singers called Ordway’s Aeolians.  I’ll fill you in with more on that group momentarily. 

The first thing that connected with me, though, was the word “Aeolian,” because when I toured Dickinson’s home in Amherst and the tour guide asked if anyone played the piano, I stepped up, sat the Dickinson’s piano (a replica; the family’s actual piano is housed in the Dickinson Room at the Houghton Library at Harvard), and played the piece of music sitting on the stand, “The Aeolian Waltz.” I mentioned that experience in this post, HERE.    

By the way, one thing I have yet to mention is the fact that during the tour of the Homestead, the guide also pointed out an Aeolian Harp sitting on a table by a window.

What’s an Aeolian Harp, you ask?
​
An Aeolian Harp is a wind-powered musical instrument that makes sound when air flows over its strings. It is named after Aeolus, the ancient Greek god of the wind.  More info is HERE.  You can listen to one HERE (don’t have high expectations – LOL). 

Now, after encountering Ordway’s Aeolians, the Aeolian Waltz, the Aeolian Harp, and Aeolus, I explored “Aeolian” a bit more.  

​The definition, stemming from the term’s namesake Aeolus, centers on the notion of something that is caused, shaped, or carried by the wind.  For example, it can describe landforms made by the wind moving sand and dust, like sand dunes and wind-carved rocks.  However, when it comes to music, the Aeolian mode is associated with the natural minor scale.  

A scale has eight notes – do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do – and in a minor scale, the third tone, “mi,” is lowered by “one half” in its pitch, making the scale and associated chords sound somber.  Additionally – on a piano – if one starts with the first note “A” and plays a minor scale to the “A” one octave higher, no black keys are used.  Only white keys.

This comes into play with Ordway’s Aeolians, the singing troupe of John Ordway, the man I mentioned earlier to whom James Pierpont dedicated “Jingle Bells.”  Ordway’s Aeolians was a troupe of white men who performed in blackface at 19th century minstrel shows. Additional info on Ordway is HERE.  Also,  “8 Things You May Not Know About Jingle Bells,” HERE (Ordway’s troupe is mentioned in #7). 

Interestingly, concerning “The Aeolian Waltz” at the Homestead – the song I played at the Dickinson Homestead – that song was not written in A Minor; instead it was composed in A Major, a key with three sharps (denoted with a symbol resembling a hashtag) which translates to three black keys, C#, F#, and G#.

My research indicated that Dickinson’s collection of piano music did, indeed, include a piece called “The Aeolian Waltz” by Richard B. Taylor.  Info from a site run by UMASS states this:

However, that was not the waltz sitting upon the piano at the Homestead.
​
I conducted further research and found that the sheet music on the piano that day, the song in A Major, was “The Aeolian Waltz” by Jenny Collins. Click the images below to enlarge.

DID DICKINSON EVER REFERENCE AEOLUS? AEOLIAN? JINGLE? BELLS?  WAS SHE THE "JINGLE BELLE" OF AMHERST?

* The online Dickinson Lexicon does not mention any reference to Aeolus nor does not include any use of the word  "Aeolian"   She did use the word "aerial"; however, "aerial" is not etymologically related to Aeolus. 

* Dickinson never used the word "jingle" in any of her poems -- so she's just the Belle of Amherst, not the Jingle Belle.

* Concerning "bell," "belles," and "bells":
    
     * "Bell" shows up in The Concordance to the Poems of Emily Dickinson ten times in ten different poems.
     * "Belles" is listed three times in three different poems.
     * "Bells" is cited thirty times in 28 different poems.

There is one overlap in the poems cited above.  "Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause" contains both the singular "bell" and the plural "bells."

Of Tolling Bell I ask the cause?
"A Soul has gone to Heaven"
I'm answered in a lonesome tone –
Is Heaven then a Prison?

That Bells should ring till all should know
A Soul had gone to Heaven
Would seem to me the more the way
A Good News should be given.