Hutchinson Family
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The Hutchinson Family Singers were a group of glee singers in the 1840s through the 1860s. They were the children of Jesse Hutchinson, a farmer from Milford, Connecticut.
The first appearance of the Hutchinson Family Singers was in Boston in 1841, when Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., became the musical director of a quartet made up of four of the family, Abby, Asa, John, and Judson Hutchinson. Another brother, Joshua, occasionally substituted in the group. They began traveling around New England and New York, as the “Aeolian Vocalists.” By 1842 they were performing under the name of the “Hutchinson Family.” In 1859, Judson Hutchinson died, and the remainder of the group split into two groups, both of whom performed as the “Hutchinson Family.” They performed through New England, the Middle Atlantic states, the Midwest, and the West Coast, as well as Canada and England.
Judson and Jesse Hutchinson composed most of the group’s songs, which were in three and four-part harmony. Although their music was lighthearted in character, many of their songs addressed highly controversial social and political topics of the day, such as womens suffrage, abolition of slavery, immigration , and temperance. For this reason, their reception was sometimes mixed. At the beginning of the Civil War, General George McClellan refused to let them entertain the troops of the Army of the Potomac, because of their anti-slavery songs (President Abraham Lincoln later overruled McClellan’s decision.).
The Hutchinson Family Singers performed into the 1880s.
External Links
Hutchinson Family Singers, [link]
About Jesse Hutchinson and the Hutchinson Family Singers, [link]
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