October 5 – Musicale at DACOR Bacon House

Located two blocks from the White House at 1801 F St., DACOR Bacon House was known in the 19th century as the Carroll Mansion and was the festive gathering place of prominent Washingtonians. Music was often part of the festivities. On Sunday, October 5th, members of the Washington Revels Heritage Voices will recreate parlor songs enjoyed in the House from a volume of sheet music belonging to Alida Carroll, the youngest daughter of Sally and William Carroll. Alida was born in the house in 1844 and came of age during the Civil War years, and she routinely played or accompanied singers on the Carroll family’s Chickering piano.

A highlight of the afternoon will be a re-creation of the “Esterhazy Ripple,” composed for Alida’s older sister Sally, who later married into European nobility and became Countess Esterhazy, a Washington Gilded Age society grande dame. The program will also feature music of the Civil War era by Stephen Collins Foster, George Frederick Root, Walter Kittredge, and more. To honor those who worked in the Mansion, Heritage Voices will also perform Irish airs, as well as African American songs that enslaved people in the house may have sung or known, drawn from “Slave Songs of the United States,” the earliest compilation of African American spirituals, published in 1867.

This performance is part of the Bacon House Bicentennial Program, 2024-2025.

The Washington Revels Heritage Voices are Christina Bussie and Jennie Weyman, sopranos, Jim Lazar, tenor, Harold Blackford, bass, and Francine Krasowska, piano.

Come and enjoy a lively afternoon with tea & sherry served at intermission.

Photos from the 2011 Christmas Revels production by Alain Lázaro Gutiérrez Almeida