This volume brings together twenty-six essays on diverse subjects of relevance to the social and cultural history of the United States. Through the lives, institutions, and events chronicled, the book gives readers an intimate view of music and music-making in Rhode Island, past and present.

Spanish exploration and settlement -- French exploration and settlement -- The English plantation colonies in the South -- The tobacco colonies -- New England -- The Middle Atlantic colonies.

Examines the contributions of women instrumentalists, composers, teachers, and conductors to American music, and suggests why they have gone unnoticed in the past.

Choral music represented an important part of American cultural life during the nineteenth century, whether integral to worship or merely for entertainment. Despite this history, choral music remains one of the more neglected studies in the scholarly community. In an effort to fill this gap, N. Lee Orr and W. Dan Hardin offer a new approach to the study of choral music by mapping out and bringing bibliographical control to this expansive and challenging field of study. Their unique guide focuses on literature related to choral music in the United States from the end of the second decade of the nineteenth century through the earlier part of the twentieth century. Choral Music in Nineteenth-Century America explores the entire range of choral music conceived, written, published, rehearsed, and performed by an ensemble of singers gathered specifically to present the music before an audience or congregation. The guide expertly sifts through the extensive literature to cite the most notable sources for study and provides individual chapters on the leading nineteenth-century composers who were instrumental in the development of choral music.

"Johnson pursued all phases of his music with unmatched skill and fervor, even to the detriment of his health. At the time of his untimely death in 1844, Johnson had become the most prolific and widely traveled American composer, bandmaster, and performer in our nation's first century."--Jacket.

Examines for the first time New England's rich heritage of music making over a span of 350 years