Text a from the history of american music

The most characteristic American music combines elements of the cultures of many national or ethnic groups.

The development of American music took place in four stages: 1607 – 1790, the period of English influence; 1790 – 1865, the period of European professional influence; 1865 – 1929, the period of the second school of New England composers; 1929 to the present, the arrival of American music on the international scene.

1607 – 1790. Probably, the early colonists at Jamestown (1607), Plymouth (1620), and Massachusetts Bay (1629) brought with them their native English music, sacred and secular; but only in the case of the northern settlements is the record clear.

Until 1700, however, the smallness of the population, the hard pioneer life, and the Puritan attitude of disapproval toward the lively arts inhibited more active musical development. Although there are references in contemporary records to musical activity of that time, the Puritan colonists seem to have viewed secular amusements and excessive pleasures with suspicion and distrust.

Concerts in American colonial cities began to be held in the 18th century and apparently followed closely the advent of professional musicians who played for church, chamber and theatre. Organs were used in Episcopal services from an early date (King's Chapel, Boston, after 1713).

Such musical amateurs as Benjamin Franklin and Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the first native-born American composer, stand out, Hopkinson for his songs in the simple and tuneful style of the contemporary London stage and Franklin for his “harmonica”.

1790 – 1865. The American Revolution interrupted musical activities, but afterward they were resumed, this time more intensively. In the last decade of the 18th century, a large-scale immigration from Europe brought musicians from England and, after the French Revolution, from France. Attracted by opportunities arising from the growing urban culture of the East Coast, singing actors, instrumentalists, and dancing masters immigrated, many of them equally home in choirloft and theatre. They had a lasting effect on American music. They moulded musical taste, and through their publishing firms and music shops they satisfied the demand for new music, instruments and instruction books. As teachers, they trained almost two generations of amateurs.

The impact of the professionals began to be felt after the War of 1812. Once exposed to the sophisticated sounds of Handel, Haydn, J. V. Stamic, church music committees and musical societies began to publish and perform only the music they considered “scientifically” correct, which was an inevitable result of the quest for cultural parity with Europe. Whether or not motivated by intellectual and aesthetic needs or merely by fashion, the establishment of such organizations for the performance of European masterworks as the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston, 1815), the Music Fund Society (Philadelphia, 1820), and the Philharmonic Society (New York, 1842) – all of which survive today – laid the foundation for serious American art music.

1865 – 1929. Between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression of the 1920s, a spectacular growth took place in American music, fostered by rapid industrialization and an almost fourfold increase in population. After 1848, the arrival of German musicians with technical skills and aesthetic concepts of music far superior to any known in America influenced the quality of the development. By the 1920's American music had achieved an independence.

Many immigrant groups brought their music to the New World. Families and small communities of various European extractions clung to their Old World traditions, including music, in America, but this music was isolated from the mainstream of American life. In the end, Africans, rather than European-Americans, made the greatest contributions to a distinctive American style.

Proper Names

Jamestown [’GeimztQun]

Plymouth[’plimqT]

Massachusetts Bay [‘mxsq,tSHsets ’bei]

Episcopal service [’ipiskqpql ’sWvis]

Benjamin Franklin [’benGqmin ’frxNklin]

Francis Hopkinson [’frRnsis ’hOpkinsqn]

Jan Vaclav Stamic [’Gxn ’vxtslqv ’Stxmits]

Philadelphia [,filW’delfjq]