The Colonial Music Institute(tm)
Bringing History to Life Through Music
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EARLY AMERICAN MUSIC Bibliographies and Tune Indexes
Background and Topical Studies
Gender StudiesBayard, Samuel P. Dance to the Fiddle, March to the Fife, Instrumental Folk Tunes in Pennsylvania. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982. Complete tunes as collected in mid 20th century. Essays tracing lineage of many back to 18th century.
Camus, Raoul F. National Tune Index: Early American Wind and Ceremonial Music, 1636-1836. New York: University Music Editions, 1989. A finding tool for performing editions.
Chappell, William. The Ballad Literature and Popular Music of the Olden Time. 1859. Reprinted. New York: Dover Publications, 1965. Somewhat dated but still useful. 17th-18th century tunes in 19th-century arrangements.
Corry, Mary Jane, et al. The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690-1783: Text Data Base and Index. New York: University Music Editions, 1997. A CD-ROM with transcriptions of articles on theater, poetry, music and dance.
Fleischmann, Aloys. Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600–1855. An Annotated Catalogue of Prints and Manuscripts. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. 6,841 complete tunes, with tune and title indexes.
Fuld, James J. The Book of World-Famous Music, Classical, Popular and Folk. 3rd. ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1985. For first publication dates of the most well known music. Incipits.
Fuld, James J. and Mary Wallace Davidson. 18th-Century American Secular Music Manuscripts: An Inventory. MLA Index & Bibliography Series Number 20. Philadelphia: Music Library Association, 1980. Lists of tune titles in 85 manuscripts.
Gore, Charles. The Scottish Fiddle Music Index. Musselburgh, Scotland: Amaising Publishing House, 1994. No tunes, but has tune index of printed instrumental music collections from 17th-19th centuries.
Heintze, James R. Early American Music, A Research and Information Guide. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990.
Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Stanley Sadie, eds. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. 4 vols. London: Macmillan, 1986. Many entries on early music topics. Includes works lists and bibliographies.
Hixon, Donald L. Music in Early America: A Bibliography of Music in Evans. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970. [to be used with Charles Evans. American Bibliography. 14 vols. Chicago: 1903–1934. Worcester: 1956-1959.] This book gives Evans numbers that lead to items in the Readex Microprint series, Early American Imprints.
Keller, Kate Van Winkle. Popular Secular Music in America through 1800: A Preliminary Checklist of Manuscripts in North American Collections. MLA Index & Bibliography Series Number 21. Philadelphia: Music Library Association, 1981. 363 manuscripts located.
Keller, Kate Van Winkle, and Carolyn Rabson. National Tune Index 18th-Century Secular Music. New York: University Music Editions, 1980. A finding tool for period performing editions.
Keller, Robert M. Dance Figures Index: American Country Dances, 1730-1810. Sandy Hook: The Hendrickson Group, 1989. An index by title with figures of dances in code.
Krummel, D.W., et al. Resources of American Music History, A Directory of Source Materials from Colonial Times to World War II. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981. A finding guide organized by location of archive with comprehensive index.
Lowens, Irving. A Bibliography of Songsters Printed in America Before 1821. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1976.
Simpson, Claude M. The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1966. Essays on over 500 early ballads with their period tunes. Titles and first lines but no lyrics of ballads; full tunes given.
Sonneck, Oscar G. A Bibliography of Early Secular American Music (18th Century). Revised and enlarged by William Treat Upton. New York: Da Capo Press, 1964. Many items listed here are reproduced in the microcard set, Early American Imprints (Evans, see Hixon above for reference numbers.)
Wolfe, Richard. Secular Music in America, 1801-1825. 3 vols. New York: New York Public Library, 1964. A bibliography. Many items listed here are reproduced in the microcard set of Early American Imprints (Shaw and Shoemaker).
Anderson, Gillian, ed. Freedom's Voice in Poetry and Song . . . Political and Patriotic Lyrics in Colonial American Newspapers, 1773-1783. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1977. A summary of lyrics found in newspapers by title and first line. Includes full text and musical arrangements of selected songs.
Annas, Alicia M. “The Elegant Art of Movement” in An Elegant Art: Fashion & Fantasy in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Harry N. Abrams and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983.
Benson, Norman Arthur. "The Itinerant Dancing and Music Masters of Eighteenth Century America." Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1963.
Britt, Judith S. Nothing More Agreeable, Music in George Washington's Family. Mount Vernon: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1984.
Camus, Raoul F. Military Music of the American Revolution. 2nd edition. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press, 1995.
Carson, Cary, et al. Of Consuming Interests: The Style of Life in the Eighteenth Century. Charlottesville: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, 1994.
Crawford, Richard, ed. The Core Repertory of Early American Psalmody. Recent Researches in Early American Music, Nos. 11-12. Madison: A-R Editions, 1984.
Cripe, Helen. Thomas Jefferson and Music. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974. Includes inventory of music in TJ's library.
Daniels, Bruce C. Puritans at Play, Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1995.
Ellinwood, Leonard. The History of American Church Music. New York: Morehouse-Gorham Company, 1953.
Emery, Lynne Fauley. Black Dance from 1619 to Today. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton Book Company, 1988.
Epstein, Dena J. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977.
Farish, Hunter Dickinson, ed. Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1957. Reflects music and dance within the life of the southern family.
Greene, Jack P. and J.R. Pole, eds. Colonial British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Hildebrand, David K. "Musical Life in and around Annapolis, Maryland (1649-1776). Ph.D. diss. The Catholic University of America, 1992.
Howe, Warren P. "Early American Military Music." American Music 17/1 (Spring 1999), 86–116.
Keller, Kate Van Winkle. "If the Company Can Do It!" Technique in Eighteenth-Century American Social Dance. Sandy Hook: Hendrickson Group, 1991.
Lambert, Barbara, ed. Music in Colonial Massachusetts 1630-1820. 2 vols. Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1980, 1985). A superb study of early American music, musicians, and entrepreneurs in the music and dance business. Of wider interest than just Massachusetts.
Lawrence, Vera Brodsky. Music for Patriots, Politicians, and Presidents. New York: Macmillan, 1975. Many facsimiles and good narrative.
Lichtenwanger, William. The Music of 'The Star-Spangled Banner:' from Ludgate Hill to Capitol Hill. Washington: Library of Congress, 1977. Reprint from the July 1977 Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress.
Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1984.
Martens, Mason. “Anglican Church Music in the Colonial Era.” A series of articles in The Bicentennial Newsletter of the Episcopal Church, 1/2–8 (1975-1976).
Nicholls, David, ed. The Cambridge History of American Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Opening chapters on Indian music, secular and sacred music to 1800, and African American music to 1900.
Pichierri, Louis. Music in New Hampshire 1623-1800. New York, Columbia University Press, 1960.
Porter, Susan L. With an Air Debonair: Musical Theatre in America, 1785-1815. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991.
Rabson, Carolyn. "Disappointment Revisited: Unweaving the Tangled Web." American Music 1/1 (Spring 1983), 12–35, and 2/1 (Spring 1984), 1–28.
Scholes, Percy A. The Puritans and Music in England and New England. 1934. Reprint. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. Seminal study.
Schrader, Arthur. "'The World Turned Upside Down': A Yorktown March, or Music to Surrender By." American Music 16/2 (Summer, 1998), 180-215.
Sonneck, O. G. T. Early Concert Life in America (1731-1800). 1907. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1978.
___. Early Opera in America. 1915. Reprint. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1963.
___. Francis Hopkinson and James Lyon. New York: Da Capo Press, 1967.
___. Report on 'The Star-Spangled Banner" "Hail Columbia" "America" "Yankee Doodle." 1909. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications, 1972.
Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans, A History. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1983.
Talley, John Barry. Secular Music in Colonial Annapolis, The Tuesday Club, 1745-1756. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1988. In addition to editions of music written by members of this group, this book contains an edition of the collection of minuets made by John Orsmby in 1758 in Annapolis.
Virga, Patricia H. The American Opera to 1790. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1982.
Wilson, Ruth Mack. Connecticut's Music in the Revolutionary Era. Hartford, CT: The American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut, 1979.
Dugaw, Dianne. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Leppert, Richard. Music and Image, Domestic Ideology and Socio-cultural Formation in Eighteenth-century England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Ground-breaking work on role of music and dance in English society. Particularly relevant for elite society.
Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters. Little, Brown, and Co., 1980. General study.
Spruill, Julia Cherry. Women’s Life and Work in the Southern Colonies. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972.
Compiled by David K. Hildebrand and Kate Van Winkle Keller, October, 2001.
Created and published September 18, 2001
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