Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction » (4th Edition)

This book provides a chronological look at American music from colonial times to the end of the 20th century revised and updated to reflect the latest scholarship and critical views. It uses extensive citation of phonorecordings, especially CD's from New World Records, Composers Recordings, Inc., and the Smithsonian Institution (all of which maintain catalogs in print). Readers will find a comprehensive treatment of both “serious” and “popular” music in the United States with a final chapter on contemporary American music from composer/critic, Kyle Gann. Part of the highly acclaimed Prentice Hall History of Music Series.

the colonial and federal eras to 1820, the romantic century (1820-1920), between the wars (1920-1945) and World War II through the present.

Musicians especially those interested in American music.

I. The Colonial and Federal Eras (to 1820).

1. Sacred Music in New England and Other Colonies.

2. Secular Music in New England and Other Colonies.

II. The Romantic Century (1820-1920).

3. Cultivated and Vernacular Traditions, and the Impact of Romanticism.

4. The Cultivated Tradition, 1820-1865.

5. The Vernacular Tradition, 1820-1920.

6. The Cultivated Tradition, 1865-1920.

7. Charles Ives.

III. Between the World Wars (1920-1945).

8. The 1920s.

9. The 1930s and Early 1940s.

IV. Since World War II.

10. The Post-War Decades: Into the 1960s.

11. Intersections, Interactions, Projections: From the 1960s to the Mid-1970s.

12. Entering the Pluralistic Postmodern Era: From the Mid-1970s to the Mid-1980s.

13. New Currents Coalesce: Since the Mid-1980s. (This chapter written by Kyle Gann.)

Index.