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Announcements
Click on the links to read about these items:
- Sample Offerings
- Donation Discs
- Mission Statement
- American Music Recordings Collection
- Multimedia Americana Music Series
- American Paintings vs. American Music
- Much More Than Yankee Doodle!
- National Carry A Tune Week
- American Music Preservation Links
Please help support the mission of
American Music Preservation.com
Use this Search Box for your purchases from Amazon.com
Sample Offerings
Celebrate America's musical past!
There are many titles listed below and elsewhere on this AMP site
that should be of interest for your listening enjoyment or teaching.
Please look them over and consider ordering some of them, as well as passing along this site to anyone you know who might be interested.
Christmas Music
Christmas Music In New England
CDs
Come, gentle Peace, with smiling ray,
Beam on our land a cloudless day.....
These are the first two lines of an anti-war poem
written by a ten year old girl written during the War of 1812
and included on this CD...
Come, Gentle Peace: Music by Roger Hall
American Music On CDs (40 CDs)
American Music Recordings Collection
Multimedia CDs and DVDs
"The Angels Handed Me A Rose"
Favorite B-western songs and songwriters
"Dream World" -
Songs, Poems and Stories by Roger Hall
Film Music Master:
A Tribute to Bernard Herrmann
"Following The Stars"
Music & Memories of Hopalong Cassidy
“Free As The Breeze” –
Confessions of a Struggling Songwriter (Memoir)
Gentle Words:
Shaker Music in the 20th Century
In Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary
of the Civil War
"Glory, Hallelujah!"
Songs and Hymns of the Civil War
“How Beautiful Upon The Mountains”:
Music by E.A. Jones (1853-1911)
"LAND OF OUR HEARTS":
A New England Music Miscellany
Singing in Early America:
From The Pilgrims To The Shakers
The Musical Telephone:
A Romantic Narrative (one act play)
"OLD STOUGHTON":
Singing Meetings and Concerts, 1760-1910
Preserving Our Musical Past
(Deluxe DVD-R)
"Shake, Rattle and Roll" -
Electric Elvis and Bill Randle
THE STORY OF SIMPLE GIFTS:
Joseph Brackett's Shaker Dance Song
Pamphlet
Blended Together:
Discoveries Along The Shaker Music Trail
Shaker Music Broadside
"Love is Little" (South Union, Kentucky, ca. 1834)
American Popular Music Survey (over 1,200 titles)
Distant Echoes:
Preserving Earlier American Music
Complete list of publications at
Donations Discs
This music preservation site needs your support. Please consider making a donation with a credit card, payable to PineTree Productions, through safe and secure PayPal.
For a donation of $25 (one CD) or $40 (two CDs) you will receive your choice of these CDs, including Free Shipping:
Bernard Herrmann Radio Tributes (Film music)
Father Kemp's Old Folks Concert Music (New England music)
Jazz On Screen - Movies and Television (Big bands and popular singers)
Johnny Mercer On Radio and Records (Popular songs)
Musick in Old Boston (New England composers)Remembering Radio: Great Songwriters and Singers (Popular songs)
Simple Gifts of Shaker Music (Shaker music)
Click on this button to
After you have made your donation,
please indicate which CD(s) you wish
and include your mailing address for proper shipping.
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Mission Statement
The goals of American Music Preservation.com are these...
- To Present
information about American music from the 17th to 20th centuries, especially little known or forgotten events.
For example: the Chicago World's Fair Concerts of 1893.
- To Promote
worthwhile music for today's audience through rare recordings.
For example: the American Music Recordings Archive.
- To Protect
the creators by giving proper credit to the songwriter or composer.
For example: the song not co-written by Elvis Presley, "Love Me Tender."
- To Provide
accurate information about a piece of music.
For example: the popular Shaker song, "Simple Gifts (Tis the gift to be simple) "
American Music Recordings Collection
A series of rare recordings and music collections focusing on the areas covered on this site and divided into these categories:
I. Composers and Compositions
II. Music Interviews
III. Earlier Americana
IV. Film Music
V. Resource PublicationsSee the complete list at:
Multimedia Music Series
on CDs and DVDs
Mutlimedia Heritage Music Series
Multimedia Pop Song Series
Multimedia Film Music Series
Preserving Our Musical Past
Multimedia Americana Music Series [MAMS]
American Paintings
vs.
American Music
The 19th century painting "Kindred Spirits" (1849) by Asher Brown Durand [shown at left] illustrates the blossoming of the Hudson River School of painters. That school has been written about and is well known.
However, it seems that few historians and writers are aware of the beauties of American classical music which blossomed during the 19th century, with composers such as: Dudley Buck, George Whitefield Chadwick, Edwin Arthur Jones, and others.
To help correct that oversight, there are a series of CDs now available in the American Music Recordings Collection which highlight American music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
Also, there are recordings available in the American Vocal Music Series.
Much More Than "Yankee Doodle"!
We live in a time of ignorance and snobbery about earlier American music.
One magazine editer once dismissed all early American music as just
"a bunch of Yankee Doodle tunes." Not true. That just illustrates that many editors and historians have no idea of the richness of music from America's past. They may know a few old songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or "Home on the Range." But not much else.If you pick up almost any book about American history there is seldom any mention of music and if it is mentioned it usually brief and often incorrect.
There are critics who often praise unpleasant music by contemporary composers and singers that some listeners don't want to hear again, yet seldom do these same critics pay any attention to American music from the past centuries when more appealing music was composed.
Here are some surprising statistics:
At a time when the percentage for classical music recordings sales has dropped from about 4 % in 1987 to less than 2% in 2008, and yet the age of 45+ listeners has increased from 10.7% in 1987 to 33.7% in 2008 -- the largest increase among any age group.
--Source: Recording Industry Association of America - quoted in The New York Times Almanac 2010, p. 411.So there is a large potential older audience for this "older" music.
As with other artistic creations, such as paintings, stage plays and vintage films, it is essential to preserve American music from the past before it is totally forgotten or lost.
Not just by the well known composers like Stephen Foster or Aaron Copland; but also earlier less familiar composers, such as George Whitefield Chadwick and Edwin Arthur Jones. Not just great songwriters, like Irving Berlin or George Gershwin; but also lesser known songwriters, like Ken Darby and Billy Hill.
How does someone learn more about this music?
One way is to read about them on this site, which has hundreds of pages devoted to many (but not all) areas of American music.
Another is to do research yourself, and if you are a musician, perform neglected American music from the past.
Or, better yet, join this activist web group seeking to preserve worthwhile music from the past:
Society for Earlier American Music [SEAM]
Right now, other than specialized books and articles by scholars, there is too much inaccurate or misleading information being circulated in newspapers and magazines and on the Internet.
These are a few misconceptions which continue to be circulated:
1) The earliest popular American songs were written by Stephen Foster. FALSE. The first popular songs were written during the 18th century.
See A Century of American Songs, 1759-1859.2) "Simple Gifts" (aka: 'Tis the gift to be simple) is an anonymous or traditional Shaker hymn.
NOT TRUE. It was written as a religious dance song by a Shaker elder. See Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts."3) The largest selling American pop songs are those by Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson.
WRONG. It's actually several Christmas songs: "White Christmas" and "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer."
See Christmas Songs (RED, WHITE and BLUE).4) Jazz is "America's Classical Music."
FALSE. Since jazz music does not usually follow a music score, it is better classified as popular music not classical music, and it began in the early 20th century. Classical music in America began as far back as the 18th century with composers such as William Billings and Oliver Holden.
See the America Vocal Music Series.
Now here are a few questions to test your knowledge.
See how many you can answer correctly.A) What is the title of the first American song and who wrote it?
B) Who wrote the first American patriotic song with words and music?
C) When was the English tavern tune "To Anacreon" first used in a popular American patriotic song? Hint: It was not "The Star Spangled Banner."D) Who wrote the song "Goin' Home" and based it on what classical theme?
[The answers to these questions are given below.]
American Music Preservation.com is a web site devoted to providing
accurate information and news of recent research and publications.This site is not a free answering service for locating songs or recordings. A research fee must be charged for questions that require considerable research.
But general questions about any of the topics covered on this site may be answered without a fee.
Students or scholars doing research in music from earlier America
are encouaged to submit items of interest to this website where they can be posted, subject to approval by the Moderator.
For more information about submitting items, click on this link to read the
Contact Information
Send your inquiries to:
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Resource Recordings
There are many titles available for
research, teaching or just listening in theAmerican Music Recordings Archive [AMRA]
====================
Website Topics
Because American music is so vast a subject, not all of it can be covered on this website. This is not intended to slight any other music, such as jazz, blues, gospel music or any other genre of music.
These five areas of vintage music were selected because it was felt
they were more in need of preserving their heritage:
Answers to the above questions:
A) "My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free" (1759) - The first American song was composed by Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence
B) William Billings (1746-1800) - Father of American Choral Music. His patriotic song , titled: "Chester" (1778), was the most popular one after "Yankee Doodle."
C) "Adams and Liberty" (1798) - English tune: TO ANACREON (1740s)/
American text: Thomas Robert Treat Paine - written in honor of the 2nd U.S. president, John Adams. This was years before the same tune was used for "The Star Spangled Banner."D) "Goin' Home" (1922) - based on the Largo movement from Symphony No. 9 (From The New World) by Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak. The song was written and adapted by Dvorak's pupil, Williams Arms Fisher, not Harry Burleigh, as some have claimed.
National Carry A Tune Week
Alexander's Ragtime Band Centennial (1911-2011)
This is a free annual web survey
held every year near the birthday of
William Billings (1746-1800),
America's first important composer,
and sponsored by The Tune Lovers Society
For more information about this annual Internet event,
go here
The 12th Annual Carry A Tune Week will take place
on October 7 - 13, 2012
Click on the links to see the tunes chosen for this annual event:
Eleventh Annual Week: October 2-8, 2011
Tenth Annual Week: October 3 - 9, 2010
Ninth Annual Week: October 4-10, 2009
Eighth Annual Week: October 5 - 11, 2008
Seventh Annual Week: October 7 - 13, 2007
Sixth Annual Week: October 1 - 7, 2006
Fifth Annual Week: October 2 - 8, 2005
Fourth Annual Week: October 3 -9, 2004
Third Annual Week, October 6 - 12, 2003
Second Annual Week, October 7 - 13, 2002
First Annual Week, October 7 - 13, 2001
See the list of composers and songwriters from the past
chosen for
AMP Links
Classical Music
Francis Hopkinson and The First American Song
American Composers Web PollPineTree Music (music by Roger Lee Hall)
Shaker Music
Shaker Music CDs and DVDs
Shaker Music History
Film Music
100 Essential Film Scores of the 20th Century
Best Film Music CDs of the Decade (2000-2009)Film Composers and Soundtracks
Film Music Review (online magazine)
Popular Songs
Survey of American Song (1759-1959)
100 Essential Songs of the 20th Century
Popular Songwriters and The Great American Songbook
New England Music
New England Composer Series No. 1: Edwin A. Jones
New England Composer Series No. 2: George W. Chadwick
New England Music Archive [NEMA]
New England Harmony: Six Early Composers
New England Song Series No. 1:
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC and JOHN BROWN SongNew England Song Series No. 2: GOIN' HOME
New England Song Series No. 3: JINGLE BELLS
New England Song Series No. 4: SIMPLE GIFTSNew England Song Series No. 5: SONG OF THE OLD FOLKS
New England Song Series No. 6:
THE BOSTON YANKEE DOODLE BALLADSinging Stoughton and the Oldest Choral Society in the U.S.A.
Other Resource Links
American Music Recordings Collection [AMRC]
Essential American Recordings Survey [EARS]
Multimedia Americana Music Series [MAMS]
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