Music in Early American Public Education: A Historical Critique

See especially Ernst Cassirer's The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: Vol. I, Language; Vol. II, Mythical Thought, Vol. III, The Phenomenology of Knowledge. Translation by Ralph Manheim with introductions by Hendel Charles W. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1953, 1955, the third volume in process of printing. See also Susanne K. Langer's Philosophy in a New Key (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1942) and Feeling and Form (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953).

The following works, by no means an exhaustive list, will provide a good introduction to the subject: Bachelin Henri , Mâitrises Les et la musique de choeur (Paris: Heugel, 1930); Cametti Alberto , “La Scuola dei ‘Pueri Cantus’ di S. Luigi dei Francesi in Roma,” Revista Musicale Italiana, XXII (1915), 600–641; Nan Cooke Carpenter, “Music in the Medieval and Renaissance Universities,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1948 [for selections from this work, which is being prepared for full publication, see her “Music in the Medieval Universities,” Journal of Research in Music Education, III (Fall, 1955), 136–44; “The Study of Music at the University of Oxford in the Middle Ages,” Journal of Research in Music Education, II (Fall, 1954), 119–33; and “The Study of Music at the University of Oxford in the Renaissance, 1450–1600,” Musical Quarterly, XLI (April, 1955), 191–214]; Antoine E. Cherbuliez, Geschichte des Musikpaedagogik in der Schweiz (Basel, Switzerland: Schweizerischer Musikpaedagogischer Verband, 1944); Philip A. Duey, Bel Canto in Its Golden Age (New York: King's Crown Press, 1951); Peter Epstein, Der Schulchor von 26. Jahr-hundert his zur Gegenwart (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1929); Kathleen Munro, “The Role of Music in the Development of Educational Thought among the Early Classical Greeks,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 1937; Gerhard Pietzsch, “Zur Pflege des Musik an den deutschen Universitaten in Oesten bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts,” Archiv für Musikforschung, I (1936), 257–92, 424–51; III (1938), 302–30; V (1940) 65 ff.; Maurice W. Riley, “The Teaching of Bowed Instruments from 1511 to 1756,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of Michigan, 1954; University Microfilms, No. 8236); Dora H. Robertson, Sarum Close: A History of the Life and Education of the Cathedral Choristers for 700 Years (London: Jonathan Cape, n.d.); Georg Schuenemann, Geschichte der deutschen Schulmusik (Leipzig: F. Kistner & C. F. W. Siegel, 1928).

This discussion is summarized from Spell Lota M. , “The First Teachers of European Music in America,” Catholic Historical Review, New Series, II (October, 1922), 372–78.

This discussion is summarized from Spell Lota M. , “The First Teachers of European Music in America,” Catholic Historical Review, New Series, II (October, 1922), p. 378.

Spell Lota M. , “Music Teaching in New Mexico in the Seventeenth Century,” New Mexico Historical Review, II (January, 1927), 31. The paragraph as a whole is summarized from this article, pp. 27–31.

For additional information, see James A. Burns, The Catholic School System in the United States (New York: Benziger Bros., 1908), passim, and Lamek John E. , Music Education in Catholic Elementary Schools (Washington: Catholic University of America, 1933), pp. 6–36.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, edited by Thwaites Reuben G. (73 vols.; Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Co., 1896–1901), LX, 145. See the index volumes for numerous other examples.

Hood George , A History of Music in New England (Boston: Wilkins, Carter & Co., 1846), p. 56.

Mauer C. L. , Early Lutheran Education in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Dorrence & Co., 1932), p. 167; Sponseller A. N. , The Origin and Development of Public School Music in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1941), p. 21.

See Sponseller, pp. 17–18, 22, 26; Walters, Bethlehem Raymond , Ago Long and Today (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: Carey Printing Co., 1922), p. 7; J. C. Ogden, An Excursion into Bethlehem and Nazareth (Philadelphia: Charles Cist, 1800), p. 20; William Riddle, One Hundred and Fifty Years of School History in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Lancaster: the author, 1905), p. 9; J. F. Sachse, The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania 1742–1800 (2 vols.; Philadelphia: The author. 1899–1900) and The Music of the Ephrata Cloister (Lancaster: The author, 1903), passim; J. S. Flory, Literary Activity of the German Baptist Brethren in the Eighteenth Century (Elgin, Illinois: Brethren Publishing House, 1908), pp. 43–44, 65, Church Music and Musical Life in Pennsylvania in the Eighteenth Century (3 vols.; Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Society of the Colonial Dames of America, 1926–1947), passim.

The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre (Cambridge: Imprinted by Daye Stephen , 1640). For a full account of this remarkable work, see Wilberforce Eame's introduction to The Bay Psalm Book: Being a Facsimile Reprint of the First Edition (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1903), and Irving Lowens, “The Bay Psalm Book in 17th-century New England,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, VIII (Spring, 1955), 22–29.

Ainsworth Henry , The Book of Psalms: Englished Both in Prose and Metre (Amsterdam: Giles Thorp, 1612). This psalter was prepared by the scholarly Ainsworth while the Pilgrims were at Leyden. A full account of it may be found in Pratt Waldo S. , The Music of the Pilgrims (Boston: Oliver Ditson Co., 1921).

The Reasonableness of Regular Singing, or Singing by Note (Boston: B. Green for Samuel Gerrish, 1720), pp. 6–7. The theses mentioned were destroyed by fire in 1764.

Dulci Utile , or, A Joco-Serious Dialogue, concerning Regular Singing (Boston: B. Green for Samuel Gerrish, 1723), p. 17.

For a fuller account of what happened in New England see Allen P. Brit-ton, “Theoretical Introductions in American Tune Books to 1800,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of Michigan, 1949; University Microfilms, No. 1505), pp. 84–88.

A complete list is given in Britton, 1949; University Microfilms, No. 1505), pp. 93–95.

A complete history of this book is given in Irving Lowens, “John Tufts’ Introduction to the Singing of Psalm Tunes (1721–44); The First American Music Textbook,” Journal of Research in Music Education, II (Fall, 1954), 89–102. The article contains a verbatim reprinting of Tufts’ instructions.

The published sermons constitute the only source which has been explored with any degree of thoroughness. At least thirty such sermons were published in New England between 1720 and 1800; Britton, op. cit. (pp. 82–117, 442–71) gives full bibliographical information and summaries. Two late scholars are known to have combed colonial newspapers for advertisements of singing schools. One, Sonneck Oscar G. T. , never published his findings; for additional details see Allen P. Britton and Irving Lowens, “Unlocated Titles in Early Sacred American Music,” Notes, XI (December 1953), 34–35. The other, Robert Francis Seybolt, cites ten such advertisements in his The Private Schools of Colonial Boston (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935)—presumably many more repose in his unpublished notes. Mary C. Crawford, Social Life in Old New England (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1914), chap. xi, “Singing Schools and Kindred Country Diversions,” bases a rather sentimentalized account upon the diary of Anna Sophia Parkman (1779) and an article by E. H. Sears, “History of the Oxford Singing School,” Monthly Religious Magazine, XXV (January 1860, 12–27. An extended reminiscence regarding singing masters and allied musical phenomena is to be found in Jacob Abbott's New England and Her Institutions: By One of Her Sons (London: R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1835), chap. x, “The Village Choir,” pp. 301–93.

Birge Edward Bailey , “The Development of the Singing School,” History of Public School Music in the United States (Philadelphia: Theodore Presser Co., 1937, revised), pp. 1–34.

Byrd William , The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709–12, edited by Wright Louis B. and Tinling Marion (Richmond, Virginia: Dietz Press, 1941), pp. 272, 276, 292.

“Early American Music,” The Roots of American Culture and Other Essays, edited by Brooks Van Wyck (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1942), pp. 161–94.

Although exhibiting a tendency to overstate the case for indigenous as opposed to imported music, Gilbert Chase is well worth reading in this connection. See his America's Music from the Pilgrims to the Present (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1955), passim.

See the works already cited by Britton Abbott Birge , (“Theoretical Introductions”), Chase Crawford, and Hood. One of the fullest accounts may be found in Henry Wilder Foote, Three Centuries of American Hymnody (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1940), pp. 74–123, 383–86.

Seybolt, op. cit., p. 13.

Diary of Cotton Mather, “Massachusetts Historical Society Collections,” Seventh Series (Boston: the Society, 1911–12), VIII, 373.

The text: “No man could learn that song.” Evidently the sermon was humorous in tone. Samuel Sewall attended the meeting, which took place in a school building, and reported that the “House was full, and the Singing extraordinarily Excellent, such as has hardly been heard before in Boston,” Diary of Samuel Sewall, “Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society,” Series 5 (Boston: the Society, 1878–82), VII, 285.

Kinne Aaron , Alamoth: An Address Delivered to the Singing Schools in the First and Second Societies in Groton (New London: S. Green, 1798), p. 14 n.

I bid., p. 14 n.

Law Andrew , The Musical Magazine, No. 1 (Cheshire: W. Law, 1792), p. 1. Adgate invariably put the letters “P.U.A.” for “President of the Uranian Academy” after his name. A full account of this ambitious singing school may be found in Oscar Sonneck G. T. , Early Concert Life in America (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Haertel, 1907), pp. 103–17.

See the full bibliography in Britton, “Theoretical Introductions,” op. cit., pp. 472–686.

The reader may gain a quick view of the matter by consulting Waldo Selden Pratt's article, “Tune-Books,” in the American Supplement to Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Vol. VI of the third edition). More detailed information is available in the unpublished doctoral dissertations of Robert W. John, “A History of School Vocal Instruction Books in the United States” (Indiana University, 1953).

For further details see Britton Allen P. , “The Musical Idiom in Early American Tunebooks,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, III (Fall, 1950), 286; Gilbert Chase, America's Music, chaps. i, ii, vi, and vii; Irving Lowens, “John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second: A Northern Precursor of Southern Folk Hymnody,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, V (Summer, 1952), 114–31, and “The Origins of the American Fuging Tune,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, VI (Spring, 1953), 43–52; J. Lawrence Willhide, “Samuel Holyoke, American Music Educator,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1954.

The displacement of American by European music is clearly revealed in the changing content of successive editions of certain tune books which enjoyed wide popularity; see especially The Village Harmony (Exeter: Ranlet H. , and other publishers, seventeen editions, 1795–1821) and William Little and William Smith, The Easy Instructor (New York and Albany: C. & R. Waite and other publishers, thirty-four editions, 1802–31). The content of the latter work is fully treated by Irving Lowens and Allen P. Britton, “The Easy Instructor (1798–1831): A History and Bibliography of the First Shape Note Tune Book,” Journal of Research in Music Education, I (Spring, 1953), 30–55.

See the numerous works of Jackson George Pullen , especially his White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1933).

This story has not been completely told, but significant details in ample quantity may be found in Lloyd Frederick Sunderman, “The Era of Beginnings in American Music Education (1830–40),” Journal of Research in Music Education, IV (Spring, 1956), 33–39, in his doctoral dissertation, “History of Public School Music in the United States, 1830–1890” (University of Minnesota, 1939), and in his many other articles.

The classic American attitude toward art music had been expressed much earlier by a prominent citizen of one of our great urban centers, where he had been exposed to it well in advance of most of his compatriots; see the stimulating letter by Benjamin Franklin as published under the title “Criticism of Modern Musik,” Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, V (August, 1790), 97–99. A careful exposition of the reformer's point of view may be found in John Hubbard, An Essay on Music (Boston: Manning & Loring, 1908). Hubbard was a professor of mathematics at Dartmouth, a musician, and the compiler of the posthumously published A Volume of Sacred Musick (Newburyport: E. Little & Co., 1814).

American school children may now sing “Wayfaring Stranger” and “On the Erie Canal,” forbidden items one hundred years ago.

For further information on this matter see Britton, “Theoretical Introductions in American Tune Books,” op. cit., pp. 313–39; Lowens and Britton, “The Easy Instructor,” op. cit., and Jackson, White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, op. cit.

He was not the first, however, as many believe; see Sunderman, “The Era of Beginnings in American Music Education,” op. cit., pp. 33–37.

The matter is completely developed in Howrard E. Ellis, “Lowell Mason and the Manual of the Boston Academy of Music” Journal of Research in Music Education, III (Spring, 1955), 3–10.

For a sympathetic and fairly complete account of Mason's career, sec Rich Arthur L. , Mason Lowell (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1946). Unfortunately, this work is entirely uncritical of Mason's various influences.

For an extended treatment of Mason's editorial activities, see Howard E. Ellis, “The Influence of Pestalozzianism on Instruction in Music,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (University of Michigan, 1957).