As promised in a previous post up above, here, in rank order, is the frequency of musical terms in an archive of newspapers in the United States from 1800 to 1850, and then from 1851 to 1900. The huge increase in numbers of "hits" in the 2nd half of the century is probably due to the fact that the archive has acquired more newspapers from that time period. This is not very scientific, but the change in rankings is interesting, with guitar, banjo and mandolin moving up the list.
Sorry I couldn't post these lists side by side – the Mudcat format didn't want to accept that. [Fixed. -Joe Offer-]

1800 to 1850 Lute – 9,693 hits (this may have more than a musical connotation?) Piano – 7,101 hits Violin – 4,414 hits (Fiddle – 481 hits) Fife – 2,568 hits Harp – 2,535 hits Drum – 2,382 hits Flute – 1,988 hits Guitar – 1,854 hits Choir – 1,467 hits Trumpet – 1,261 hits Singer – 807 hits Tuba – 439 hits Minstrel – 388 hits Performer – 316 hits Orchestra – 272 hits Brass Band – 219 hits Accordion – 219 hits Minstrels- 212 Banjo – 145 hits Spinet -21 hits Dulcimer – 16 hits Harmonica – 12 hits Mandolin – 5 hits Concertina – No hits

1851 to 1900 Piano – 380,938 hits Lute - 193,921 hits Orchestra – 157,645 hits Choir – 125,863 hits Singer – 105,760 hits Violin – 96,152 hits (Fiddle – 11,067) Drum – 95,965 hits Harp – 52,286 hits Fife – 46,992 hits Guitar – 41,213 hits Minstrels – 34,139 hits Banjo – 31,176 hits Minstrel – 30,207 hits Mandolin – 28, 284 hits Brass Band – 28,220 hits Trumpet – 26,666 hits Flute – 19,586 hits Performer – 15,380 hits Tuba – 14,650 hits Accordion – 6,310 hits Harmonica – 2,094 hits Dulcimer – 899 hits Concertina – 830 hits Spinet – 604 hits