Colonial New England’s Musical Landscape

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REGISTER BELOW to tune in on Thursday, July 8, 2021 at 7 PM ET

Join us for the next stop in the On the Road with JHU Series! New England's geography and settlement patterns fostered not only a rich domestic music scene, but sacred music also flourished there, both in public services and within the extremely popular singing schools. Learn about how the British colonies differed by region - with a greater variety of sacred music in the middle colonies, and a love of public theater and dance in the southern colonies where they cared little for music in church. Join Dr. Hildebrand to survey the main composers and musical forms of Massachusetts, especially, with a mixture of lecture, image sharing, and both live and recorded musical examples.

Links to related resources for this course: 

www.colonialmusic.org - Now hosted by George Washington’s Mount Vernon.  The resources section is especially useful through the PACAN (Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers) database.

www.musicalpassage.org - Pages from early 18th-c book including African music transcribed in 1688 in Jamaica; links to audio recordings on proper instruments, lots of other good background

https://www.americanantiquarian.org/thomasballads/ - Hundreds of high-res pix of ballads printed in 1813 in Boston but covering lots of history back a half-century also; includes detailed descriptions, essays, and many now with audio recordings