Sheet music · 1844
Croton Waltz
J. Hazzard
A piano waltz for the celebration that brought Croton water to New York — one of two competing Croton Waltzes registered in 1844.
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Listen to Croton
The music New York wrote about Croton water. When the aqueduct opened in 1842, the city answered in song — a temperance chorus for the great celebration, two competing piano waltzes, and verse for the city's children. The original scores, digitized by the Library of Congress, are here to read page by page, with full transcriptions of every surviving lyric.
Sheet music · 1844
The Original Favorite Croton Waltz
H. F. Williams, Professor of Music
The 'Original Favorite' — a piano-forte waltz published in Philadelphia and New York, deposited for copyright December 26, 1844.
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Sheet music · 1842
From Mountain Heights & Vallies Green
John Willis (music) · Jonas B. Phillips (words)
A temperance song and chorus for the arrival of Croton water in 1842 — 'Away, away the madd'ning bowl.' Lyrics once thought unrecoverable, transcribed here in full.
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“Oh, blessed be the Croton! It floweth everywhere”
Poem · 1842
The New-York Boy's Song
Lydia Maria Child
'Oh, blessed be the Croton!' — Lydia Maria Child's verse portrait of a city discovering running water, from hydrants to fountains.
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Poem · 1842
The Croton Ode
George Pope Morris
The official anthem of October 14, 1842 — commissioned by the city and sung before the Croton fountain as the water arrived.
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♪ Recording available
Scores courtesy of the Library of Congress, Music Division. All works are in the public domain.