1. Colonial Times

2. Families on the Mayflower brought with them a small book of psalm tunes prepared for them in Holland a few years before by Reverend Henry Ainsworth.
The Ainsworth Psalter
Original text was converted from Hebrew to English and adapted to well known traditional hymns of European Churches.

3. In 1640 these tunes were the influence for printing the Bay Psalm Book!
Published in Cambridge Massachesetts this was the first English-language book printed in New England.
The Ainsworth Psalter and the Bay Psalm Book were among the oldest and most important influences on American song forms.

4. These early psalms mixed with the immigrants arriving from the British Isles, Holland, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy and other parts of Europe and evolved alongside them as they brought the melodies of their homelands to new colonies.
Because of this each region of the country began to develop their own unique sound.

5. Churches were the epicenter of Puritan life and served as a house of worship, school, court of law, and government facility.
Do to this, faith and religion were amongst the earliest and strongest influences on American musical evolution.
The psalm became a multi-use tune. They became songs for the home, workshop, or outdoors.

6. The Bay Psalm Book had no musical notation until it’s ninth edition published in 1698.
For 48 years the psalms were passed down through a purely oral/aural tradition.
Like a game of telephone, songs slowly became nearly unrecognizable from their origins.
Deaconing or lining out melodies became a staple. Someone would sing the line, congregation would do their best to repeat it back.

7. The singing of the psalms became so sluggish and horrible to listen to that one critic etched this on a pew of a church in Salem. “Could poor King David, but for once To Salem Church repair, And hear the Psalms thus warbled out Good Lord how he would swear!”

8. Because of publishing the melodies to the psalms, they improved but not without controversy.
A writer in the New England Chronicle in 1723 represented a certain portion of the population by writing “Truly I have a great jealousy that if we once begin to sing by rule, the next thing will be to pray by rule, and preach by rule; and then comes popery.”

9. Despite the fear of the “old ways” reading by musical notation won out.
Not only was it accepted but in order to help those who were not versed in reading notes, instruction books which taught the rudiments of music and note reading began to appear.
Singing schools began forming, the first was opened in Boston in 1720.

10. These schools multiplied quickly
These schools multiplied quickly. Ultimately, it was through these schools and the music teachers that taught in them that secular music and activities began to flourish in New England.
Broadside Ballads- these were a kind of singing newspaper in which noteworthy events, political comments, misfortunes and scandals were put in verse form and set to music.

11. These Broadside Ballads were printed on sheets and sold on the streets for a penny.
Benjamin Franklin, at the age on nine, wrote a few of them. One was called Lighthouse Tragedy. *
For decades these Ballads were the only indigenous musical product in in the colonies and were very important in stimulating the beginning of American songwriting.

12. 1750’s native composers begin to appear with technique mostly modeling influences from English “ballad operas”.
Francis Hopkinson, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence said he was “the first native of the United States who has produced a musical composition.” *(A Toast)

13. When in 1765 the colonists dissatisfaction of England grew to a fever pitch it was fueled by lyrics of revolt put to English melodies. For Instance Liberty Song or Yankee Doodle. *
William Billings can be counted as the first native to write truly American music. His music was described as sturdy and rugged, with deep roots in the American soil. Chester is counted as the most stirring and widely sung air of the revoution. *

14. Yankee Doodle became known around 1755 and quickly gained popularity
Yankee Doodle became known around 1755 and quickly gained popularity. The British Redcoats marched to Lexington in 1775 singing the sprightly, satirical stanzas to taunt the Yankees. The colonials adopted the tune.
When Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, it was a lusty Yankee rendition that provided the musical background. *