Researching Secular Music and Dance in the Early United States

This book provides a practical introduction to researching and performing early Anglo-American secular music and dance with attention to their place in society. Supporting growing interest among scholars and performers spanning numerous disciplines, this book contributes quality new scholarship to spur further research on this overshadowed period of American music and dance. Organized in three parts, the chapters offer methodological and interpretative guidance and model varied approaches to contemporary scholarship. The first part introduces important bibliographic tools and models their use in focused examinations of individual objects of material musical culture. The second part illustrates methods of situating dance and its music in early American society as relevant to scholars working in multiple disciplines. The third part examines contemporary performance of early American music and dance from three distinct perspectives ranging from ethnomusicological fieldwork and phenomenology to the theatrical stage. Dedicated to scholar Kate Van Winkle Keller, this volume builds on her legacy of foundational contributions to the study of early American secular music, dance, and society. It provides an essential resource for all those researching and performing music and dance from the revolutionary era through the early nineteenth century.

Laura Lohman is Professor of Music and Director at Queens University of Charlotte. Her previous publications in music include Umm Kulthum: Artistic Agency and the Shaping of an Arab Legend, 1967-2007 (2010) and Hail Columbia! American Music and Politics in the Early Nation (2020).

Introduction David K. Hildebrand and Laura Lohman Part I Interpreting Material Objects of Music and Dance Culture - Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, 1589-1839: An Index Raoul F. Camus - Aaron Thompson, His Book of Notes: First American Transcription of Five Country Dances From the Revolutionary War era Richard C. Spicer - A Scrapbooking President and a Few Good Tunes: Researching Early American Musical Practices through the Jefferson-Randolph Family Scrapbooks Laura Lohman Part II Situating Dance and Its Music in Early American Society - Keller's Approach: New Perspectives in Dance History Heather Blasdale Clarke - Successful Campaigns: The Commercialization of Leisure and Self-Presentation in Early America Graham Christian - Mozart, America's First Waltz-King Michael Broyles Part III Research and Contemporary Performance - A Practical Guide for Recreating Early American Music: Thoughts after 40 Years in the Trenches David K. Hildebrand - Soundscapes of Tradition: Ancient Fifing and Drumming and the Embodiment of Place in the Connecticut River Valley Timothy Murray - Imagining Colonial America and the Early Republic in Musical Theater: Historical Tensions and Creative Possibilities in Dearest Enemy (1925) and Hamilton (2015) William A. Everett Conclusion Laura Lohman, David K. Hildebrand, and Heather Blasdale Clarke Postlude Robert M. Keller, Anne Keller Geraci, and Margaret Keller Dimock