about early american music by david k. hildebrand...early american music by david k. hildebrand 11....
TRANSCRIPT
About Early American
Music by David K. Hildebrand
REVIEW
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
1. Why was colonial music “not so much music written in America
before the Revolution as it was music that was brought here”?
[immigrants from Europe / lack of knowledgeable “American” composers]
2. What musical mediums existed in early colonial life?
[ballads, dance tunes, folk songs and parodies, comic opera arias, drum
signals, psalms, minuets and sonatas]
3. Where did early colonial music come from if not the soon-to-be
United States?
[England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, and Africa]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
4. How did tunes such as “Over the Hills and Far Away” serve a variety of functions?
[Single tunes also served a variety of functions such as theater song, a recruiting song, a dance tune, and a military march]
5. TRUE or FALSE: Most instruments that we have today were around by the Revolution.
6. What was the most popular instrument in the American colonies?
[violin]
7. Were pianos around in the American Colonies at the time of the revolution?
[yes]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
8. Aside from violin, what other instruments were present in early American music?
[flutes, fifes, recorders (English Flutes), transverse flutes (German Flutes), but no pennywhistles]
9. Why did most women abstain from performing music in the American colonies?
[very tight self-regulation of activity in the name of "maintaining reputation"]
10. When women did play music, what were the most common instruments played in pre-revolutionary American colonies?
[harpsichord and English Guitar (tear-shaped 10 string in open C tuning]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
11. What is the “grandmother” to the modern guitar and what was it like?
[a Baroque guitar, and it was a small version of a classical guitar with gut strings, frets of gut
tied around the neck, and strung as a modern 12-string without the bass E strings, so it was
also a 10 stringed instrument]
12. What are some of he other instruments that popped up, in various regions,
in the colonies?
[Drums and trumpets, trombones and French horns, 'cellos, violas da gamba, clarinets,
oboes and bassoons, glass 'armonicas, hammered dulcimers, organs]
13. What were ballad operas in early America? What was the most famous?
[compilations of familiar folk tunes with new words strung together by spoken dialogue to
tell a comic story / The Beggar’s Opera]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
14. Where and why was The Beggar’s Opera created?
[compiled in 1728 in London as a reaction to the elite Italian opera that was so popular
among the wealthy in that city]
15. What were the most popular dance styles for the American colonies?
[English and Celtic reels, hornpipes, jigs, and minuets]
16. What instrument usually accompanied early dance tunes?
[violin]
17. Why is the French Horn, at least at this time, considered a less than
desirable instrument for conducting dance music?
[no valves]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
18. What was the most varied sort of music in colonial America?
[church music]
19. What function in colonial American did singing masters serve?
[church members to read from music, and a large body of unique
compositions emerged]
20. Who was William Billings Bryant?
[early American singing master]
Early American Music by David K. Hildebrand
21. Where were most organs found in the southern colonies?
[private homes rather than churches (English Church)]
22. Who were the Moravians and why were they considered the most musically sophisticated?
[largely Germanic people copied, performed, and even composed new chamber pieces that were far superior to the general level of musical accomplishment in the colonies]
23-25. What were the two forms of colonial military music and describe each?
[Band of Musick" consisted of professional musicians hired by officers to play contrapuntal music at parades, during meals, and for dancing. This ensemble often consisted of oboes, clarinets, (French) horns, and bassoons / "field music." This consisted of the fifers and drummers who played during the march, during battles, and for the various camp duty calls which regulated soldiers' lives]