The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14) : $b Music in America
History
The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14) : $b Music in America
Music -- History and criticism; Musicians
Daniel Bailey, of Newburyport, published in 1764 'A new and complete
Introduction to the Grounds and Rules of Music in two books,' of which
the first is taken from Williams and the second from Tansur. In 1769-71
Bailey issued a two-volume work called 'The American Harmony.' The
first volume is a reprint of Tansur's 'Royal Melody,' together with
'A new and correct Introduction to the Grounds of Musick, Rudimental,
Practical and Technical,' also taken from Tansur. The second volume is
a reprint of Aaron Williams' 'New Universal Psalmodist.'[13]
Most of the music in the collections of Lyons, Flagg, and Bailey was
the work of contemporary English church-composers. Some of it may
have been written by Americans, but there has been identified only
the anthem called 'Liverpool,' in Lyon's collection, which is the
work of William Tuckey, of New York. This is only pseudo-American,
however, as Tuckey was an Englishman. It is merely an imitation of the
weak style of verse anthem then popular in England, and the same is
true of the other compositions which may be American. Notwithstanding
the poor quality of the music, the success of Bailey's collections
serves to show the advance which church singing must have made in New
England. The florid 'fuguing choruses' and canons, popular among the
hymn-writers who followed Purcell in England, were not very noble or
inspiring music, but their performance entailed a degree of musical
expertness far removed from the cacophantic crudity of which the
Rev. Thomas Symmes and his contemporaries so plaintively spoke. At
the same time it may be pointed out that these early collections of
psalm-tunes are full of errors, due to the lack of persons competent
to read proofs of musical works, and, if the leaders of church choirs
were not musicians enough to correct such errors in the rendering,
either their ears were yet imperfectly trained or they had a sense of
free harmony far in advance of their age. Furthermore, it was very
late in the eighteenth century before the reform in church singing
became general throughout New England. In the 'History of Worcester' we
read of an energetic duel on August 5th, 1779, between the old deacon
and the singers, in which the deacon read the psalm according to the
'lining-out' method, while the choir simultaneously sang the verse
without pause, according to the new system. Force of numbers and noise
finally overpowered the doughty old champion of tradition, who, we are
informed, 'retired from the meeting-house in tears.' It was as late as
1785 before the parish of Rowley joined the march of progress, as we
find the following entry under that date in the 'History of Rowley':
'The parish desire the singers, both male and female, to sit in the
gallery and will allow them to sing once on each Lord's day without
reading by the deacon.'
II
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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