Souvenir Music from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893
Musical Map of Midway Plaisance
Based on the piano tune "An Afternoon at Midway Plaisance," by Gustav Leuders
This musical map of the Midway at the 1893 World's Fair takes an audible tour through the Midway Plaisance. The map depicts several scenes from the Midway; you can hear each depiction by clicking on the relevant section of the musical map.
How to Use the Map:
- Move your mouse over the map to locate specific areas of the Midway repesented in the song. (You can access the same tracks via the map's legend below).
- Once you click on a link, the view will shift to clips from Lueders’ score and contemporary photographs from that pavilion. Each segment lasts about a minute.
- To return to the main screen and choose a new pavilion, click on the “Return” button in the upper right-hand corner of the viewing window to return to the map page.
If you would like to experience the music in the order followed by Gustav Lueders’ original sheet music, listen to this MP3 of the piece.
Or, use the map follow the path of the list below:
- Going to the Fair by Train (click on no. 1, Station Sliding Railway)
- The Chinese Temple (click on 8a, Chinese Village).
- In Old Vienna (click on 7, Austrian Village)
- The Persian Dancers (click on 31, Persian Theater). The famous “hoochie koochie” music was actual heard at the Streets of Cairo exhibit, not the Persian Theater. Leudens therefore mistakenly includes it as part of his section on "the Persian Dancers," where you can hear it below.
- The German Village (click on 21)
- The Irish Village (click on 41)
- In the Streets of Cairo (click on 18)
- At Hagenbecks** (click on 26). Hagenbecks refers to a popular wild animal show. And although we hear the famous “hoochie koochie” music in this piece, it was actually heard at the Streets of Cairo exhibit, not in the Persian Theater.
Surprisingly, there is no section devoted to the Ferris Wheel, which debuted to great popular appeal at the Fair. Our Souvenir Music album, however, contains numerous pieces devoted to the famous wheel.
Images on the musical map are from the following sources:
Stuart C. Wade, ed., Rand, McNally and Co.'s Handbook of the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago: Rand, McNally and Co., 1893).
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Book of the Fair, an Historical and Descriptive Presentation of the World's Science, Art, and Industry, as Viewed Through the Colubian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. (Chicago, San Francisco : The Bancroft Company, 1893).