AMERICA’S MUSIC PART ONE

FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR

A

lthough native peoples had been

making music in North America

for centuries before the arrival of

Europeans, the written history

of music on the North American

continent begins with documents

by European explorers and settlers. The writings

of Spanish and French missionaries describe not

only the music of indigenous peoples but also the

European-style music put to service in the efforts

to convert them to Christianity. Music in the British

colonies, meanwhile, arrived as a simple transplant

from England, but began in the course of the fi rst

century of settlement to show traits that pointed to

New World origins.

Developments in the colonies and the early

republic tell the story of musicians searching for

ways to be paid for their art without the established

institutions that supported music in the Old World.

A successful musical career such as that of Lowell

Mason demanded not only musical ability but also

an entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen, and a

e African American music formed one part of the soundscape of colonial North America. Pictured

here are present-day reenactors at Colonial Williamsburg with a reproduction of an early banjo.

fi nger on the pulse of public taste. From early in the

nation’s history, a hallmark of music in the United

States has been its active engagement with the

marketplace.

In the decades before the Civil War, American

music refl ected the diversity of American society.

Bands, orchestras, and choral societies presented

music “of the highest class,” as a Boston critic of the

time called it, to urban audiences of growing sophis-

tication. Southern slaves responded to hardship with

music rooted in their African heritage. Working-

class Northerners, many of Irish descent, adapted

that slave music and dance to create a raucous stage

entertainment, the minstrel show, that would reso-

nate through American culture for many decades to

come. Piano manufacturers and sheet music pub-

lishers catered to the tastes of a growing market for

their merchandise, and their efforts would give rise

to a popular music industry. By the end of the Civil

War, the musical culture of the United States repre-

sented the rapidly industrializing, urbanized nation

itself.

ca. 1828 “Daddy” Rice creates the character Jim Crow

1831 Thomas Hastings and Lowell Mason, Spiritual

Songs for Social Worship

1833 Founding of the Boston Academy of Music

1837 Lowell Mason begins teaching music in Boston

public schools

1842 Founding of the New York Philharmonic Society

1842 The Hutchinson Family Singers begin touring

1843 The Virginia Minstrels perform the fi rst full-

length minstrel show

1844 B. F. White and E. J. King, The Sacred Harp

1846 End of musical activities in California missions

1850 Jenny Lind’s U.S. tour, managed by P. T. Barnum

1851 Singing debut of Elizabeth Taylor Greenfi eld, “The

Black Swan”

1854 Founding of Mason & Hamlin, manufacturer of

reed organs and, later, pianos

1859 Dan Emmett introduces “Dixie” to the New York

stage

1860 A resident opera company is established in San

Francisco

1861–65 Civil War

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