Download Overview of American Music - Harlan Independent Schools

Overview of American
Music
Timeline
1640
The Bay Psalm Book, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, first book printed in British
Colonial America, entire Book of Psalms
translated into English meter; indicates
dominance of religious music
1700
Black slaves include songs based on Old
Testament stories in their worship
services; beginnings of Negro Spirituals
1775-1776
1775 - British soldiers sing "Yankee Doodle" to
mock colonists; Americans adopt it as their own
tune .
1776 - "Johnny's Gone for a Soldier," adaptation of
Irish folk tune, popular during American
Revolutionary War .
1814-1815
Francis Scott Key writes the poem "Defense of
Fort McHenry” after witnessing the
bombardment of Fort McHenry by Royal Navy
ships in Chesapeake Bay The poem was set to
the tune of a popular British drinking song,
written by John Stafford Smith. “The Star
Spangled Banner” was then published in 1815.
It was made the national anthem in 1931
1851
Stephen Foster writes “Old Folks at Home”
1861
Based on the hymn “John Brown’s
Body,” William Steffe composes
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” using
text by Julia Ward Howe
1897
John Phillip Sousa composes
“Stars and Stripes Forever”
Composers Scott Joplin,
James Scott, and Joseph
Lamb establish, popularize
ragtime, give birth to
America's popular music
industry, ending reliance on
Europe
1900
"Country" music of southeastern U.S. features guitar,
fiddle banjo, harmonica - direct descendant of
English, Scottish, Irish ballads, folk songs
"Western" musical genre spreads through western
states, features steel guitars and large bands; singing
cowboys
Based on Mississippi River boat music and black,
French, Spanish piano music, early forms of jazz
develop in New Orleans brothels, honky-tonk bars
1904
George M. Cohan's musical play, Little
Johnny Jones, followed by Forty-five
Minutes from Broadway, 1906, help create
indigenous American musical theater
1911
Popular songwriter Irving Berlin completes
"Alexander's Ragtime Band," his first hit;
culmination of ragtime craze
1912
Composer, band
leader, "father of
the blues," William
Christopher Handy
publishes Memphis
Blues, helps
inaugurate new
style based on
rural black folk
music
1916
President Woodrow Wilson issues executive order
making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national
anthem. Congress confirms it, 1931
Charles Albert Tindley,
first black gospel
composer to be
published, releases
New Songs of
Paradise, collection of
37 gospel works
1920
West 28th St. in New York City becomes center of the
popular music industry, through 1950s, known as
"Tin Pan Alley.”
Singers Gertrude
"Ma" Rainey, Bessie
Smith popularize
blues; Beale Street
in Memphis
becomes
blues center
Early 1920s
Chicago becomes jazz capital.
Trumpeter Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly
Roll Morton begin to perform
1922
Jazz musician Duke Ellington moves to New
York, forms band that ultimately becomes
Duke Ellington Orchestra
Country fiddlers Henry
Gilliand and Eck
Robertson make records,
as music companies
search for "old-time music"
1924
George Gershwin composes Rhapsody in blue
The Julliard
School opens in
New York
1925
Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, Tennessee, begins
Saturday night radio broadcasts featuring
regional music, helps fuse Southeastern
and Western styles, creating the
country western genre
1927
Show Boat, music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein, based on Edna Ferber's novel,
becomes first hugely popular musical comedy
Duke Ellington’s
1932 song "It Don't
Mean a Thing If It
Ain't Got That
Swing" ushers in
swing era
1932
Blues pianist Thomas A. Dorsey, "father of
gospel music," writes song "Take My Hand
Precious Lord"
1935
Clarinetist Benny Goodman named
"King of Swing"
Tommy Dorsey, Harry
James, Glenn Miller,
Artie Shaw lead popular
jazz orchestras
1936
Aaron Copland uses jazz and folk music to
create American-sounding music for ballet,
film, and symphony orchestra
Electric guitar debuts