Colonial, Revolutaionary, and Federal Music

Outside Influence

• Outside coming in• Musical Isolation• “Sophisticated” vs “Untrained” • “Old” vs “New”

Spanish Missions

• Nueva España: missions 1493 – 1833 • Southern US (East Coast to West Coast), Mexico• Mexican Government; closed 1833

• Influence on Native Americans• Singing• Instruments • Documentation of Native American Music

Spanish Missions Map

Music of the Spanish Missions

• Hymns• Gregorian Chant • Alabado (A hybrid genre)• Long and sad; loneliness • http://youtu.be/m2PxR4Ffmks

• Instrumental Music• Orchestras

New England

• Imported musical values• Tonal system• Instrumentation• Musical Ideals• Aligning with or contrasting against European ideals

• Purpose of music

• Creation of new genres

Psalm Tunes

• Protestants: Sing in your native language• Thanks, Martin Luther!

• Calvinists (Puritans in New England): no instruments; “a cappella”; unison• Instruments and words; instruments and catholic icons• Harmony is too “sensuous”; only austere in church

• Text of music• Psalms (psalmody, psalm tunes)• Scriptural texts – not in New England

• NO EMOTION ALLOWED IN CHURCH [in robot voice]• The music is a vehicle for the text; conveying text

• “Sacred” and “Secular” to a Calvinist

Oral Tradition and Psalters

• In many congregations psalms learned by rote• Memorable tunes • Oral tradition – folk music?

• Printing expensive• Psalters • Words only• Notated melodies and words

• Old Hundred or Old 100th

• Geneva Psalter (first ed. 1539; second ed. 1551)• Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter• Published as “The Whole Booke of Psalmes, Collected into

Englishe Meter” (London, 1562)• English; Calvinists in England

Old Hundred from Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter

But this is American Studies…

• English Calvinists fled (late 1500s)• Holland “self-imposed exile” • Ainsworth Psalter (1612)

• New World: Plymouth 1620• Few instruments (only small)• Psalters! • Ainsworth, Ravenscroft, Sternhold and Hopkins

• “Bay Psalm Book” 1640 (Cambridge, MA)• “The Whole Booke of Psalms Faithfully* Translated into

English Metre” • Kind of a big deal, ya’ll

* faithfully, but not skillfully

What is a metrical translation?

Psalm 23: King James Version

The Lord is my shepherd;I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;

He leadeth me beside the still waters;He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in the paths ofrighteousness for His name’s sake.

Psalm 23: Bay Psalm Book

The Lord to me a sheperd isWant therefore shall not I.

He in the folds of tender grassDoth make me down to lie.

He leads me to the waters stillRestore my soul doth He;

In paths of righteousness, He willFor His name’s sake lead me.

Bay Psalm Book

Old South Church

• Auction of 1640 edition of the Bay Psalm Book• November 26th, 2013• “It’s the greatest rarity in the book world. Nothing

is desirable as the Bay Psalm Book.” • How much you ask? Guess.

$15 Million to $30 Million

• According to Sotheby’s, who is auctioning the book on behalf of Old South Church, it will fetch between 15 and 30 million dollars.

• World’s most expensive book

Music Notation and Psalters

• Bay Psalm Book first edition – only words• Editions after 1698 – some tunes

• Lining Out• “Where all have books and can reade, or else can say the

Psalm by heart, it were needlesse there to reade each line of the Psalm before hand in order to [sing].”

• Lining out occurs where people lacked “either books or skill to reade.”

• Ex: Old Hundred (Pete Seeger and creepy children)

Pros and Cons of Lining Out

PROS• Made music/singing

accessible to more people – no formal training required

• Tunes could be freely elaborated/altered• Church goers could “decorate

their praise of God as the spirit moved them.”

CONS• Untrained voices• “squeak above” or “grumble

below” • Leading singers were not

necessarily trained (could not read music; could not sing)

• Accuracy and Memory • Small pool of tunes

• Tunes could be freely elaborated/altered

• Transformation of tunes• “’tis hard to find two that sing

exactly alike.” • Departing from the Puritan

fathers’ psalmody governed by the “rule” of notation

“Regular Singing”

• Rise of “Regular Singing” and birth of Singing Schools• Authority of Notated Music

• Eventually Lining Out labeled “the Old Way” • Complaints about the “Old Way”

Rev. Thomas Symmes on Oral Hymn-Singing (1720)

• “The Rules of Singing not being taught or learnt, every one sang as best pleased himself, and every Leading-Singer would take the Liberty of raising any Note of the Tune, or lowering of it, as best pleas’d his Ear, and add such Turns and Flourishes as were grateful to him; and this was done so gradually, as that but few if any took Notice of it. One Clerk or Chorister would alter the Tunes a Little in his Day, the next, a little in his and so one after another, till in Fifty or Sixty Years it caus’d a Considerable Alteration.”

Singing Schools

• Music literacy• Movement to teach New Englanders • Ministers leading, then musicians• Simplified version: fa, sol, la, mi• Started in Boston, spread to most of Eastern US and CA

• Singing School Masters• Often amateurs with training in other trades• Travelers • America’s first PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS

• First New England School• “school” of composers• Late 18th century

Role of Singing Schools

• For the church• Not part of the church• Offered “innocent and profitable recreation” • Steered young people away from “idle, foolish, yea,

pernicious songs and ballads.” • Opposition: intrusion of secular into sacred

• Instructional• Social• Boy-Girl party!

Colonial America Map

Change in Style

• Singing schools• Rise of the “Regular Style” and phasing out of the

“Old Style” of Lining Out• One of many religious debates in New England

• Reform of singing style • Smooth transition vs. difficult transition• Months vs. decades

• Why the difference? • Catholicism vs. Protestantism • Popes/Biships vs. Vote of the Church

Meeting-House Choirs

• Formed by singers themselves• Brought energy and musical diversity• Targets of complaint: • Parishioners found choir members’ behavior to be

“secular and obnoxious” • A Boston church choir described as “a set of geniuses

who stick themselves up in the gallery” • “Above” congregational singing• Hymns too simple• Show offs

New England vs. European Styles

• Europe• Renaissance Music (1400 – 1600)• Baroque Music (1600 – 1750)• Classical Music (1750 – 1820)

• How does this relate to New England music? • Musical Isolation• No pressure to conform to European standards

• Classical Era• Elements in New World• Should it still be called “Classical”?

• Recreational Singing• Table Books: similar to English style Renaissance tradition

William Billings

• 1746 – 1800• Started working as a Singing Master at age 23 (1769)• Had many other jobs throughout life: • Tanner• Hog Reeve• Street Cleaner

• Not a good businessman • The New England Psalm Singer 1770• Printed by Paul Revere• An American “first” • 127 compositions

• Amateur or Professional musician/composer?• Famous in his day, especially early career

• Wrote almost exclusively for four part choir• Who sang/played his music

New England Psalm SingerEngraved by Paul Revere

Chester

• From The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770)• Chester

• Long Meter• 8.8.8.8

• Melody of Tune• Tradition of switching or combining parts (only Soprano

Tenor)

• How is this text included in a “sacred” songbook?• Stretching musical boundries

• Who is God rooting for? • Art Music vs. Popular Music

Canon

• Staggered entrances, staggered ending• Does not start or end together• Circular• All parts sing the exact same thing• Ex. When Jesus Wept (Billings)

Billings’ Other Compositions

• The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770)• Ex Chester, When Jesus Wept

• The Singing Master's Assistant (1778)• Ex Jargon, Jargon YouTube, David’s Lamentation

• Music in Miniature (1779)• The Psalm-Singer's Amusement (1781)• Ex Modern Musick, Modern Musick YouTube

• The Suffolk Harmony (1786)• The Continental Harmony (1794)

Psalm-Singer’s Amusement

Modern Musick

Fuging Tune

• Became popular in late 18th Century• Broken down into sections• A: homophonic (chordal); melody usually in tenor• B: polyphonic (separate lines/parts); all lines are similar

to the initial melody, but completely independent

• B section is usually repeated: ABB• Start together, end together• Excellent diagram on p. 36 in textbook

• Ex. Sherburne (Read)

Anthem

• Religious in nature• Biblical, but not scriptural• i.e. newly written text

• Through composed• Longer than hymns• Complex• Typically sung by a trained choir• Ex. Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs (Antes)

Other Composers

• Daniel Read (1757 – 1836)• The American Singing Book (1785)• Comb maker, general store; MA militia • Ex: Sherburne• Fuging Tune

• Supply Belcher (1751 – 1836)• “The Handell [sic] of Maine” • First active in Lexington, MA• Students founded the “Stoughton Musical Society”

Non-Calvinist Protestant Music

• Lutheran Hymns• Martin Luther• Psalm vs. Hymn• Use of instruments; organ

• German- and Dutch-Speaking Protestants • Mennonites (arrived 1683)• Spoke German or Dutch• Hymns

• Moravians (arrived 1735)• Georgia, North Carolina Pennsylvania, Ohio• Composer: John Antes (1740-1811)

Secular Music

• More like our modern definition of secular, not the Calvinists’ definition• Public concerts in late 1720s• Happening about the same time as Europe, but a little

after• Limited to large American cities (esp. Boston)• Simple, popular music; not “serious music”

• Late 1700s: music publishing important business• “Household music” and its purpose• Fortepiano

Prestigious Musical Amateurs

• Musical societies• Amateurs: instrumental and choral; performances• Imported European professionals• European composers• Moravians – musical excellence; first amateur

performances

• Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)• Amateur violinist

• Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)• Believed Europeans had superior taste in music• Thought America had no “high caliber” musicians• Played guitar and harp

Glass Harmonica

• Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)• Also: Armonica or Armonika• Inspired by wine glasses filled with water, causing

the pitch to fluctuate; frequently a European “street show” • http://youtu.be/QdoTdG_VNV4

• He thought it could be more “conveniently arranged”• http://youtu.be/_XPfoFZYso8

Professional Composers

• Benjamin Carr (1768 – 1831)• European

• James Hewitt (1770 – 1827)• Lived in England until 1792…

• Alexander Reinagle (1756 – 1809)• English; lived in Europe until 1786…• Ex. Sonata in E for Piano Forte, Mvt. 3• Rondo form; ABACA

• How are these people AMERICAN composers? • Virgil Thomson (20th century American composer): “The

way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.”

Early American Theatre and Opera

• Alongside the rise of the public concert• Theatrical performances banned from 1778 – 1789• Boston: further resistance; law enforcing ban 1750 – 1793• More religious than political

• Historical lack of “concert etiquette” • George Washington

• Ballad Opera• Lighthearted • Often comical • Spoken dialogue (not recitative) along with arias• John Gay: Beggar’s Opera (1728); England America