America’s Musical Landscape
6th edition
Part 1:
Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods

As early as the sixteenth century,
inhabitants of the New World experienced a
variety of native and imported musics

Including Roman Catholic Music


French and Spanish visitors accompanied their
own worship with music
The missionaries taught the music to the Indians
in Florida and in the Southwest as part of the
conversion process to Roman Catholicism
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
2
Music at the Spanish Missions

Taught by missionaries, American Indians learned



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To sing and perform Christian songs and prayers,
including choral singing
To play instruments in church orchestras
To create simple European-style instruments
To sing traditional Spanish music, praise songs or hymns,
and Gregorian Chant
To perform at Christmas in musical nativity plays called
Las Posadas (The Lodgings), about the struggles of Mary
in finding a place to deliver the baby Jesus
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
3
Spanish missions

Remained active in California

Catholic church music was regularly performed there


By missionaries
By Native Americans

But the Mexican government ordered missions closed in
1833

Musical instruments and music manuscripts of mass settings
and church music have been found at mission sites

Catholic music remained important in regions inhabited by
Spanish, French, or Mexican people
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
4
The Protestant Influence

The Protestant custom of singing psalms
and hymns dominated the religious music
experience in this country

Religious songs inspired and comforted people in
the North and South

New England’s practices exerted the strongest
and longest-lasting influence on American music
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
5
Psalm Tunes: Martin Luther and the
Protestent Reformation

1517 in Europe: German Catholic cleric
Martin Luther (1483-1546) instigated the
Protestant Reformation, protesting
practices of the Roman Catholic church


Other people in northern European countries
then formed their own Protestant sects
Protestants sang hymns in their vernacular
(common) language

Hymns: Had simple folklike tunes, easy to sing
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
6
Psalm Tunes: The Pilgrams and
Puritans

Pilgrims and Puritans
in New England in the
early seventeenth
century were
Protestants

The protestations
against Roman
Catholicism included
religious music
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Pilgrams Going to Church
Painted by George H. Boughton
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
7
Psalm Tunes: The Pilgrims and
Puritans

Followers of Swiss reformer John Calvin
(1509-1564) believed the only texts suitable
for singing in a worship service were the
psalms,150 inspirational verses from the Old
Testament of the Bible

Hymns, forbidden in a worship service, had freely
written texts not necessarily based on Biblical
passages or from church liturgy
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
8
Psalm tunes and the Calvinists

Calvinists retranslated the psalms into verses
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


having a regular number of lines
with patterns of weak and accented beats
suitable for setting to music
Calvinists believed the only purpose for music in a church
service was to enhance expression of a religious text, not to
stir emotions and not for the music itself


In worship, sang a cappella (unaccompanied), in unison
Outside of worship Calvinists enjoyed harmony and instrumental
accompaniment with their psalm tunes
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
9
Psalm tunes became a folk tradition

Psalm tunes were
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Folklike in nature
Learned from oral experience
Strophic in form


4-line stanzas
Ornamentation and variation in the singing was
typical of folk song singing
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
10
Psalm tunes and psalters

Psalter: A book containing the metered and
rhymed psalm verses, for use in congregational
singing


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Some psalters contained notated melodies
Others had no music but only the words, which could be
sung to familiar tunes
1539: The first collection of psalm tunes was
printed in Switzerland
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
11
Psalm tunes and Psalters

Protestants sang hymns in their vernacular, or common,
language

Most settlers didn’t bring musical instruments from England,
but carried psalters

In 1640, the Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed in the
New World


Originally titled The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into
English Metre
No tunes were included in the first edition; subsequent editions included
music
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
12
Listening Example 11
Old Hundred (excerpt)
By Louis Bourgeois
(c. 1510-c. 1560)
Performers: Gregg Smith Singers
Listening guide page 46
Also known as the
Doxology, “Praise God,
from Whom All Blessings
Flow,” this setting of
Psalm 100 is the most
famous psalm tune of all
A four-part choir sings
a cappella in this example
with soprano melody
Form: Strophic (only 1 stanza is heard)
Meter: Quadruple, as well as long meter, entailing four line stanzas
with eight syllables; any psalm in long meter could be sung to any
long meter tune
Rhythm: Altered from the original rhythm sung long ago
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
13
Other Protestant Music

John Calvin proscribed all music but the singing of
unaccompanied psalm tunes in church

Martin Luther encouraged joyful singing of simple
tunes and lighthearted texts in worship, some of
which he composed


Lutherans sang hymns, many of which are still sung today
The famous “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” was by Martin
Luther
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
14
Listening Example 12
‘Tis the Gift to be Simple
Composed by Joseph Brackett, Jr.
Performed by string ensemble and choir
Listening Guide page 48
This well-known tune has
both sacred and secular
associations. Sung at two
Presidential inaugurations,
it has been the inspiration
for numerous composers
of film scores and concert
music.
Form: Through composed
Meter: Duple
Melody: In a major key, moves mostly stepwise with few leaps
Composed originally as a dance tune, the last two lines instruct the dancers as
part of their worship expression
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
15
Other Protestant Music: GermanSpeaking Protestant Sects

Included



Mennonites
Moravians
Responding to William Penn’s policy of religious
toleration, German-speaking Protestants fled
persecution in Europe and settled in
Pennsylvania, then in other regions as well


In America, they kept much of their culture intact
Their language and religious practices isolated them from
the Protestant Anglo-American mainstream in the colonies
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
16
Other Protestant Music: Mennonites

1683: Mennonites arrived in the US,
mostly from Germany

Background



1520s: Mennonites were founded in Europe
Refused on religious grounds to perform military
service
Rejected a state church, resulting in European
persecution
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
17
Mennonite Music



Mennonites had their own hymnals
and psalters, some with notated
music for hymns and psalms
But the old hymn tunes were
preserved by oral tradition
Mennonite schoolmasters compiled
tune books with traditional texts
and tunes:
Example of Fraktur
Title pages were decorated with Fraktur, a Pennsylvania-German
Mennonite folk art with highly ornamental combination of calligraphy
and script, including flowers, figures, and geometric designs
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
18
Other Protestant Music:
Moravians and others

The late seventeenth century and early eighteenth
century

Waves of emigrant Protestants came to America including



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Members of the English Society of Friends, called the
Quakers
The Shakers, a later offshoot from the Quakers
 Shakers were so called because of the trembling
induced by religious emotion during worship
Methodists
Moravians had a significant effect upon music in America
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
19
Moravians: Background


Moravians arrived in 1735 together with Methodist
missionaries and hymn writers John and Charles
Wesley
Moravians
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
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Were persecuted in their homelands of Moravia and
Bohemia
Desired to serve as Christian missionaries to African and
Native Americans
Settled first in Georgia, then moved north to Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, as well as Salem (Winston-Salem), North
Carolina and other areas in the East
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
20
Moravian Music

Music had been important to the Moravians in
Europe

Moravians
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
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Composed and performed beautiful music in America
Integrated hymns and other religious music into daily life
Wrote both sacred and secular music



Songs and instrumental music
The music was sophisticated and complex beyond the music
of other early Americans
Moravian music revealed their strong German and Czech
heritage
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
21
Other Protestant Music:
The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening, beginning in 1735, was a series of
religious revival movements along the eastern seaboard

Started in New England cities
 Many Puritans perceived a lessening of moral rectitude and
an increase in intellectual interests
 People on farms had a hard life on difficult land;
abandoned religious customs of parish life

The Great Awakening spread from North to South, stirring
religious fervor

Religious enthusiasm stimulated the rise of psalm singing
and hymn singing
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
22
Early Efforts at Musical Reform

Most colonials had no opportunity to hear or
practice good music

Few people could read the notated tunes in editions of the
Bay Psalm Book printed after 1698


Old tunes were remembered differently in New England
towns and villages
 There was disagreement as to how to sing the tunes
Lining Out came to be used for congregational
singing: A leader sang one line of a psalm, the
congregation repeated, each line performed
successively in this manner
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
23
The Singing School Movement:
Background

Lining out caused problems

Leaders often lacked musical training
 Many had unattractive voices
 Often sang songs in uncomfortable voice ranges
 Embellished and distorted tunes

Better educated ministers printed collections of tunes with
instructions in reading music notation

Amateur teachers often attempted simpler methods to teach
music notation

These amateurs replaced the teaching ministers and became
known as singing school masters
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
24
The Singing School Movement and
the Singing School Masters

Singing school masters were former shopkeepers,
merchants, farmers or tradesmen




Became itinerant teachers
Traveled from town to town
Held singing schools in the local meetinghouse, church or
school until the congregation learned to read music
Singing schools were popular social events in addition to
their educational purposes



People attended singing school several times per week
A final performance demonstrated students’ accomplishments
The singing school master then traveled to teach elsewhere
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
25
The Spread of the Singing School
Movement

1720: The Singing School Movement began in Boston

1760-1800: The movement spread into Canada, New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas

Into the 1800s: Singing school masters offered instruction and
inspiration especially in rural and remote areas

Pedagogy:
 Singing school masters devised their own teaching materials
 Compiled collections of familiar psalm tunes and other
religious songs, often with written instruction about syllables
to sing and elements of music
 Composed their own tunes
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
26
The First New England School of
Composers

A “school” of artists generally includes people




Living at the same time
Living in the same geographic region
Sharing certain artistic goals and similarities of style
The singing school masters were the First New England
School of Composers, who were

The first Americans to write music with an American sound




Their simple folklike songs had religious texts
The tunes were suitable for congregational and home singing
Shared the goals of teaching people to read music and sing
Music they composed did not conform to anyone’s rules
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
27
The First New England School of
Composers: William Billings

Billings (1746-1800) became famous as a singing school master
and composer



The first American to produce a book of tunes all of his own, the
New England Psalm Singer (1770)
 Ineffective copyright laws back then; he made meager profits
Billings considered “nature” as the best music teacher
 Judged musical quality according to personal taste
Ignored conventional rules of music composition
 He and others of the First New England School made
unorthodox musical decisions to please their own ears
 In his era he was eccentric but extremely talented
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
28
Listening Example 13
Chester
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav’ry clank her galling chains.
We Fear them not, we trust in God.
New England’s God forever reigns.
The foe comes on with haughty stride,
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their vet’runs flee before our youth,
And Generals yield to beardless boys.
By William Billings
Listening guide page 53
Form: Strophic
Meter: Quadruple; march tempo
Melody: Lies within a one octave range
Texture: Homophonic; melody in tenor voice
Timbre: A cappella four-part singing
What grateful off’ring shall we bring,
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Hallelujahs let us Sing
And praise his name on ev’ry Chord.
“Chester” (1770): The principal marching song of New England troops during
the Revolutionary War; the first American popular song
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
29
The First New England School of
Composers: Performance Practices

The listening example “Chester” is a cappella on our CD


But instruments might have doubled the voice parts
Belief that church music must enhance—never detract
from—worship caused prejudice against instrumental
accompaniment of church music


Instruments were sensuous and could not express text
Prejudice lessened at the time of the First New England School
 Organ, string, or wind accompaniments began to be used
 Violin, the “devil’s fiddle” associated with dancing, slowly
gained acceptance; bass viol, flute, clarinet, bassoon were
used
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
30
The First New England School of
Composers: Canons

Canon: A melody that forms meaningful harmonies when
performed with “staggered entrances”




Successive voices begin the same melody at later times
Each voice continues to the end of the tune, dropping out at the
end while remaining voices continue until they drop out in turn
 “Voice”—A line of music, whether sung or played by musical
instruments
Each line is actually the same melody; a canon is polyphonic
Circular Canon: A round, which continues to make
harmonic sense when repeated any number of times
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
31
Listening Example 14
When Jesus Wept
By William Billings
Listening guide page 55
When Jesus wept, the falling tear
In mercy flow’d beyond all bound;
When Jesus groan’d, a trembling fear
Seiz’d all the guilty world around.
This is one of Billings’ best-known
and best-loved songs
Form: four-part circular canon or round
Texture: Monophonic when the melody is performed in unison;
polyphonic when performed in canon
Meter: Triple
Timbre: May be performed by four women’s voices, four men’s
voices, or by a mixed chorus of soprano, alto, tenor, and bass
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
32
The First New England School of
Composers: Fuging Tunes

Fuging tune: A new popular kind of song, late eighteenth century
ABB
 Form: Two sections, A and B:
 A is homophonic : Melody in one voice (usually tenor); other
voices (soprano, alto and bass) supply chordal harmony
 B is polyphonic, begins with staggered entrances, gives
each voice melodic interest
 B is repeated
 Four similar but independent lines of music, which end
together on a chord

By 1800 about 1,000 fuging tunes had been written
 Fuging tunes offered interest, variety, challenge, and fun!
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
33
Listening Example 15
Sherburne
By Daniel Read
While shepherds watched their flocks
by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.
The words are from a famous hymn
Written in 1700 by Nahum Tate
Listening guide page 56
Daniel Read was the most popular
composer of fuging tunes
Texture: The first section (A) is homophonic, consisting of
the first two lines of text; the second section (B) is
repeated and has staggered entrances, each melodic
line imitative of, but not identical to, the others
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
34
Impact of Singing School Masters
upon American Culture

Besides Billings and Read, many singing school masters
composed for their pupils





Psalm tunes
Hymns
Canons
Fuging tunes
They considered their music as teaching material


Today we value it as strong, beautiful, and genuinely American
Recent American composers have used the tunes of the First
New England School of Composers and their contemporaries as
inspiration and source material for current music
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
35
Chapter 3 Image Credit:


Slide 7: Pilgrams Going to Church, painted
by George H. Boughton. © COREL
Slide 18: An example of Fraktur.
© Philadelphia Museum of Art/ Corbis
© 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Part 1: Music in Early North America
Chapter 3: Religious Music in the Colonial,
Revolutionary, and Federal Periods
36