An Introduction to America's Music

Richard Crawford (1935—2024), a longtime professor at the University of Michigan, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as president of the American Musicological Society, published ten books on American music.

Part 1 The first three centuries: "The First Song" - Native American music; European inroads - early Christian music making; from ritual to art - the flowering of sacred music; "Old, Simple Ditties" - Colonial song, dance, and home music making; performing "By Particular Desire" - Colonial military, concert, and theatre music; maintaining oral traditions - African music in early America; correcting "The Harshness of Our Singing" - New England psalmody reformed. Part 2 The nineteenth century: edification and economics - the career of Lowell Mason; singing praises - Southern and Frontier devotional music; "Be It Ever So Humble" - theatre and opera, 1800-1860; blacks, whites, and the minstrel stage - home music making and the publishing industry; from Jeanie to Dixie - parlour songs, 1800-1865; of yankee doodle and ophicleides - bands and orchestras, 1800 to the 1870s; from church to concert hall - the rise of classical music; from log house to opera house - Anthony Philip Heinrich and William Henry Fry; a New Orleans original - Gottschalk of Louisiana; two classic Bostonians - George W. Chadwick and Amy Beach; Edward MacDowell and musical nationalism; "Travel in the Winds" - Indian music from 1820; "Make a Noise!" - slave songs and other Black music to the 1880s; songs of the later 19th century; stars, stripes, and cylinders - Sousa and the phonograph; "After the Ball" - the rise of Tin Pan Alley; Part 3 The twentieth century: "To Stretch Our Ears" - the music of Charles Ives; come on and hear - the early 20th century; blues, jazz, and a rhapsody - the Jazz Age dawns; "The Birthright of All of Us" - popular music, mass media, and the depression; "All that Is Native and Fine" - American folk song and its collectors; from New Orleans to Chicago - jazz goes national;"Crescendo in Blue" Ellington, Basie, and the Swing Band; the golden age of the American musical; classical music in the postwar years; "Rock around the Clock" - the rise of rock and roll; songs of loneliness and praise - postwar popular trends; jazz, Broadway, and musical permanence; melting pot or pluralism? - popular music and ethnicity the Beatles, rock, and popular music; trouble girls, minimalists, and the gap - the 1960s to the 1980s; Black music and American identity.