Croton Waltz by J. Hazzard (1844)

A separate piano composition celebrating the Croton water celebration, registered for U.S. copyright in 1844 — the same year as Henry F. Williams's better-known Croton Waltz of identical title. Little is known about composer J. Hazzard. The piece is preserved in the Library of Congress's bound volumes of instrumental sheet music registered with the U.S. District courts for copyright purposes, 1820-1860.

The Library of Congress catalog identifies the subject as "waltzes, croton water, piano music" and dates it 1844.

The existence of two separately-published Croton Waltzes in the same year — one by Williams and one by Hazzard — testifies to the popular appetite for piano music celebrating the Croton Aqueduct two years after its 1842 opening. Where Morris's official Croton Ode was a grand civic anthem and Phillips's "From Mountain Heights" was a temperance chorus, the waltzes offered something different: domestic entertainment for the parlor, designed to be played at home by amateur pianists who wanted to mark the occasion in their own way.

The piece is preserved at https://www.loc.gov/item/2023798735/

— NOTE: This entry compiled from Library of Congress catalog records and photo metadata. Details may contain errors.