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New England Music Archive
[NEMA]Roger Lee Hall, Director
The New England Music Archive is a collection of recordings and scores
intended to preserve rare and historical music from New England's past,
roughly from the landing of the Pilgrims (1620) to the end of World War I (1920).The aim is to make available music for research, performance, and recording.
Become a Member
If you are a musician, researcher, student, teacher or listener
and would like to offer your support by becoming an NEMA Associate,
you will receive a Free CD of New England music with your membership.You can join as a NEMA Associate for a donation of $25
for one year from the month you join.To become a NEMA Associate, just click this button to
For any questions, write to:
Contents:
National Peace Jubilee
World's Peace Jubilee
New England's Top 40 From The Past
Early New England Music Recordings
Research Articles
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Grand National Peace Jubilee
(1869)
Illustrations show the announcement and the interior of the huge Coliseum for the five day National Peace Jubilee, held in Boston in June of 1869, from Patrick S. Gilmore's History of the National Peace Jubilee and Great Musical Festival (Boston, 1871).
This first Peace Jubilee was organized by band leader, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, to commemorate the end of the Civil War, and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant attended the opening ceremonies.
The Peace Jubilee featured a band and orchestra of about 1,000 musicians plus soloists and members from 100 choral groups totaling of over 10,000 singers.
It was one of the first "monster concerts" and a forerunner of today's massive outdoor concerts of classical or rock music.
There was a new piece written for the National Peace Jubilee: "Hymn of Peace," in commemoration of the end of the Civil War and premiered during the First Day on June 15, 1869 [see No. 1 at left]
The words were written for the occasion by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) and set to "American Hymn" by Matthias Keller, and later included in the extensive collection titled, Heart Songs - Dear to the American People, published in 1909). Copies of the National Peace Jubilee music collection and Heart Songs are in the NEMA library.
These are the three verses of the hymn by Dr. Holmes:
Angel of Peace, thou hast wandered too long!
Spread thy white wings to the sunshine of love!
Come while our voices are blended in song—
Fly to our ark like the storm-beaten dove!
Fly to our ark on the wings of the dove,—
Speed o’er the far-sounding billows of song,
Crowned with thine olive-leaf garland of love;—
Angel of Peace, thou hast waited too long!Brothers we meet, on this altar of thine
Mingling the gifts we have gathered for thee.
Sweet with the odors of myrtle and pine,
Breeze of the prairie and breath of the sea,
Meadow and mountain and forest and sea!
Sweet is the fragrance of myrtle and pine,
Sweeter the incense we offer to thee,
Brothers once more round this altar of thine!Angels of Bethlehem, answer the strain!
Hark! a new birth song is filling the sky!
Loud as the storm-wind that tumbles the main,
Bid the full breath of the organ reply,
Let the loud tempest of voices reply,
Roll its long surge like the earth-shaking main!
Swell the vast song till it mounts to the sky! —
Angels of Bethlehem, echo the strain!
This hymn, edited and conducted by Roger Hall, was recorded in its first modern day performance in the 1980 Boston concert by the Old Stoughton Musical Society.
World's Peace Jubilee
and
International Music Festival
(1872)
This second music festival took place in Boston and was to celebrate the end of the Franco-Prussian War in Europe. It was once again organized by Patrick S. Gilmore and took place in June of 1872. Known as the World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival, it featured about 2,000 musicians in the orchestra and 20,000 in the chorus. Among the special invited guests were two European composers, Johann Strauss II and Franz Abt. Though it was considered a failure because of poor attendance, this was probably the largest ensemble of musicians ever assembled in one location in the United States during the 19th century. For the occasion a new piece titled, "Festival Hymn" by Dudley Buck was composed and performed during the the second Peace Jubilee in 1872.
Now Available!
New England Choral Sampler: From The Pilgrims To Peace
a compilation of music, including the "Hymn of Peace"
from the National Peace Jubilee of 1869,
and "Festival Hymn" from the World's Peace Jubilee of 1872
New England's "Top 40" From the Past
Compiled by Roger Hall
The survey covers only vocal selections which span roughly three centuries,
from 1620 to 1920.The titles have been set up like a pop chart listing the Top 40. While there is no way to judge accurately the popularity of music from these years, these 40 selections are representative examples of the vast amount of vocal music performed, composed and published in New England during these centuries.
The music listed below includes psalms, ballads, hymns, anthems, music from cantatas and oratorios, folk spirituals, war and anti-war songs, sentimental songs, and patriotic songs.
They include music from such New England composers as: William Billings, Dudley Buck, George W. Chadwick, Jacob French, Oliver Holden, Jeremiah Ingalls, Charles Ives, Edwin A. Jones, Lowell Mason, and Daniel Read.
Here are a few sample audio files using Real Player:
What follows is a list of New England's vocal music from the past, containing both well known and unfamiliar pieces, mainly in live concert performances, and available on the two CDs listed at the end of the list. The selections are listed
in roughly chronological sequence:I. Pilgrims
1. +Pilgrims: Psalm 8 - Ainsworth Psalter [CD 1]
2. +Pilgrims: Psalm 100 - Ainsworth Psalter [CD 1]II. Purtians
3. +Puritans: Psalm 23 - Bay Psalm Book, 1698 [CD 1]
4. +Reformer: Psalm 100 Tune New - Rev. John Tufts, 1720s [CD 1]III. Pirates and Native Americans
5. Pirate Ballad: Captain Kidd [CD 1]
6. +Narragansett Indian Hymn: My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord [CD 1]IV. Birth of Liberty and The American Revolution
7. The Liberty Song - words: John Dickinson, 1768 [CD 1]
8. Free America (tune: British Grenadiers) - words: Dr. Joseph Warren [CD 1]
9. The Lexington March (tune: Yankee Doodle) [CD 1]
10. Father and I Went Down to Camp (tune: Yankee Doodle, ca. 1776) [CD 1]
11. +Chester - William Billings, 1778 & 1786 [CD 1]
12. +Yankee Song (tune: Yankee William Billings), 1788 (ed. by Roger Hall) [CD 1]V. New England Singing Masters
13. +Majesty - William Billings, 1778 [CD 2]
14. +The Bird - William Billings, 1790 [CD 1]
15. +Confidence - Oliver Holden, 1793 [CD 2]
16. Coronarion - Oliver Holden, 1793 [CD 2]
17. +Victory - Daniel Read, 1793 [CD 1]
18. Northfield - Jeremiah Ingalls [CD 2]
19. New Jerusalem - Jeremiah Ingalls, 1796 [CD 1]
20. +Dormant - Jacob French, 1802 [CD 1]VI. Federalism to Old Folks Concerts
21. +Adams and Liberty - words: Thomas R.T. Paine, 1798 [CD 1]
22. + The Star Spangled Banner - words: Francis Scott Key, 1814 [CD 2]
23. My Country 'Tis of Thee - words: Samuel F. Smith, 1831 [CD 2]
24. +Jerusalem, My Glorious Home - Lowell Mason, 1840s [CD 2]
25. +Jehovah's Praise - Edward White, 1850s [CD 2]
26. +Song of the Old Folks (tune: Auld Lang Syne) - words: Albert Laighton, 1855 [CD 2 ]VII. The Civil War and Peace
27. +John Brown (tune: Glory, Hallelujah, 1861) [CD 1]
28. +Battle Hymn of the Republic (tune: Glory, Hallelujah) - words: Julia Ward Howe, 1862 [CD 1]
29. +Shaker Pacifisit Hymn: A Prayer for the Captive, 1862 - Cecilia DeVere , (1862)[CD 1]
30. Afro-American Spiritual: Go Down, Moses [CD 1]
31. +Give Us This Day - Stephen Foster, 1863 (ed. by Lorna Cooke de Varon) [CD 1]
32. +Hymn of Peace - Oliver Wendell Holmes/ music: Keller's American Hymn [CD 1] -- written for the National Peace Jubilee in 1869, reprinted in 1872 World's Peace Jubilee collection.VIII. The 1870s and 1880s
33. +Temperance Song: Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, 1870s [CD 2]
34. +US Centennial Cantata: Centennial Meditation of Columbia - Dudley Buck, 1876 [CD 2]
35. +Cantata Aria: How beautiful upon the mountains - Edwin A. Jones,
from Song of Our Saviour,1881 (First Concert Performance, 1992) [CD 1]
IX. 1890 - 1910
36. +Oratorio Chorus: The Lord is King - Edwin A. Jones, 1890 [CD 2]
37. +Chorus: Easter Carol - Charles Ives, 1892 [CD 2]
38. +Cantata Chorale: How Lovely Shines the Morning Star - George W. Chadwick,1909 [CD 2]X. World War I
39 +Patriotic Chorus: Song of the Marching Men - Henry Hadley, 1919 [CD 1]
40.+Patriotic Chorus: Land of Our Hearts - George W. Chadwick, 1918 [CD 1]+ = First modern day recording = 30 out of 40
CDs for the 40 selections listed above:
CD 1: New England Song Treasury
CD 2: American Choral Sampler
Early New England Music Recordings
These are a few of the articles relating to New England music from the past in American Music, the journal published by The Society For American Music:
"Dudley Buck and the Secular Cantata" by Lee Orr (Vol 21/ No 4, Winter 2003)
[note: Buck's 1876 cantata is recorded on American Choral Sampler ]
"Chadwick's Melopomene and the Anxiety of Influence" by E. Douglas Bomberger (Vol 21/ No 3, Fall, 2003)
"Charles Ives's (Utopian, Pragmatists, Nostalgic, Progressive, Romantic, Modernist) Yankee Realism" by Marc E. Johnson (Vol 20/ No 2, Summer 2002)
"Charles Ives, Cowboys, and Indians: Aspects of the 'Other Side of Pioneering' by Denise Von Glahn (Vol 19/No 3 (Fall 2001)
For information about The Society For American Music, click on this link:
Read about music from earlier New England at the
American Music Recordings Archive
Christmas Music
in New England
New England Song Series No. 1:
BATTLE HYMN
OF THE REPUBLIC
New England Song
Series No. 2:
GOIN' HOME
New England Song
Series No. 3:
JINGLE BELLS
New England Song
Series No. 4:
SIMPLE GIFTS
New England Song
Series No. 5:
SONG OF
THE OLD FOLKS
New England Songster
New England Composers No. 1: Remembering Edwin A. Jones
New England Composers No. 2: Tribute to George W. Chadwick
Society for Earlier American Music [SEAM]
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