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American Colonial Music
Colonial music was not so much music written in America before the revolution as it was music
that was brought here from Europe and Africa. Their music helped to define the people who
were to create a new country. Colonial music included ballads, dance tunes, folk songs and
parodies, comic opera arias, drum signals, psalms, minuets, and sonatas. Such music came
mostly from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, and Africa. It was played on
whatever instruments were handy. Some instruments and music were more appropriate to certain
classes, genders, and ethnic backgrounds.
Colonial music involved both written and oral/aural processes. Many people knew a large body
of tunes by ear, but they would often set new words to fit the older tunes. Single tunes also
served a variety of functions – for example, “Over the Hills and Far Away” served as a theater
song, a recruiting song, a dance tune, and a military march.
Which instruments were used?
Most instruments that we have today were around by the Revolution. Pianos were just coming
into use and some instruments were more popular than others. The most popular instrument in
Colonial America was the violin. Men of all different classes, from Thomas Jefferson to
indentured servants and slaves, played violins or fiddles. Prices varied from cheap to quite
expensive and they were exported to the Colonies from Europe in great numbers.
Second in popularity to the violin were flutes of many different kinds, also played for the most
part by men. There were fifes, recorders (English flutes), and German flutes (transverse or held
horizontally).
So what did women play? Women worried about maintaining their “reputations” and this limited
their musical options. Many wealthy women played harpsichords but only for family and friends.
Besides the harpsichord, women also played the English guitar, a now extinct 10-string version
of a Renaissance cittern that had a flat back and a teardrop shape. The strings were tuned to an
open C chord.
The Baroque guitar was not as popular as the English guitar, but it is a direct forerunner of our
modern guitar. The Baroque guitar was strung as a modern twelve-string guitar without the low
E strings, so it had ten strings.
Drums and trumpets, trombones and French horns, cellos, violas da gamba, clarinets, oboes,
bassoons, glass armonicas, hammered dulcimers, organs – all these appeared in varying numbers
within the colonies.
Theater Music
Musical theater in the colonies was very popular. Most performed were ballad operas –
compilations of familiar folk tunes with new words strung together by spoken dialogue to tell a
comic story. The most famous of these was “The Beggar’s Opera”, compiled in 1728 in London
as a reaction to the elite Italian opera that was so popular among the wealthy in that city. “The
Beggar’s Opera” was performed in the colonies as early as 1750. Today, people will buy the
sheet music and/or CD to a favorite movie or musical. In Colonial times, people would bring
home the music and words to the songs in The Beggar’s Opera (or any of the many other ballad
operas) to play and sing them at home.
Dance Music
Music was also critical to the favorite pastime of the colonists – dancing. There was a huge
repertory of dance tunes, mostly English and Celtic reels, hornpipes, jigs, and minuets. Music at
dances was often provided by a single violin, but for special occasions there may have been four
or five musicians. Whatever instruments and players could be gathered was fine for the dancers.
Historians have found a diary entry referring to a dance that was accompanied by a solo French
horn, for lack of a more suitable instrument. This must have been quite a challenge, since brass
instruments had no valves yet!
Church Music
Religious music provided the most diverse music in the Colonies. The devout Congregationalist
churches of New England encouraged their church-goers to sing psalms and anthems. After
1720, paid singing masters taught church members to read from music, and a large body of
unique compositions emerged, most notably by William Billings of Boston. However, in the
colonial South, the official tax-supported Church of England evoked considerably less
enthusiasm on the part of parishioners. More organs could be found in private homes than in
churches of the Southern Colonies.
Most musically sophisticated were the Moravian settlers in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
These largely Germanic people copied, performed, and even composed new chamber pieces that
were far superior to the general level of musical accomplishment in the colonies. Baptists,
Methodists, Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, and other Protestant denominations all rose in
importance through the 1700’s, but Catholics were persecuted (especially in Maryland) and
flourished only after the Revolution brought true religious freedom. Native Americans and
African Americans were in many cases Christianized, and the rise of the Negro Spiritual as a
popular choral style after the Civil War is attributed to musical interactions dating back well into
colonial times.
Military Music
Two general sorts of military music are associated with early America, mostly during the late
colonial period and Revolutionary period. A Band of Musick consisted of professional musicians
hired by officers to play contrapuntal music at parades, during meals, and for dancing. This
ensemble often consisted of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons. The other type of music was
often referred to as field music. This consisted of the fifers and drummers who played during the
march, during battles, and for the various camp duty calls that regulated soldiers’ lives.
Source Text: The Colonial Music Institute, About Early American Music, David K.
Hildebrand, Copyright 2001, The Colonial Music Institute
American Colonial Music
Name ________________________
I. Use the article, “American Colonial Music” to fill in the blank for these questions.
1. An example of a song that was used for many purposes is ____________________________.
2. The violin or fiddle was usually played by ______________, including Thomas Jefferson.
3. The English guitar was a popular instrument for __________________ and had ___________
strings. The open strings were tuned to play a _________ chord.
4. The most famous example of a ballad opera was ___________________________________.
5. The favorite pastime of the colonists was ______________________.
6. Many churches in New England hired _____________________________________ to teach
members to read music.
7. The __________________________ were the most musically sophisticated religious sect in
the colonies.
8. Military _______________________________ was played with fifes and drums.
II. According to the article, mark these statements as true or false.
_____ Several uniquely American songs were written after churches in New England began to
employ singing masters to teach congregants to read music.
_____ The military employed professional musicians to play for the officers’ dinners and dances,
but used fifers and drummers for camp duties.
_____ Churches in the southern colonies were state-supported and had elaborate organs installed
in the chapels.
III. Define the terms below.
Ballad Opera
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Band of Musick
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
IV. Choose the answer that best finishes the following sentences.
1. The main idea of the second paragraph is that
a.
b.
c.
d.
most colonists didn’t read music and learned new songs by ear.
the song “Over the Hills and Far Away” was used for a variety of reasons.
colonists would rewrite words to older tunes to serve different purposes.
colonists tries to leave music from the old world behind and write all new music.
2. Musical choices for women were limited because
a.
b.
c.
d.
only wealthy women had harpsichords.
they worried about ruining their reputations.
they preferred playing the English guitar.
they only played for family and friends.
3. The most popular instrument of Colonial America was the
a.
b.
c.
d.
flute.
piano.
Baroque guitar.
violin.
V. Compare the church music of the New England colonies to church music in other regions of
Colonial America. Remember to include the Church of England in the South and the Moravians.