Early American Secular Music and
Its
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This is a series of indexes derived from a data base of musical information compiled from primary sources covering the 250 years of the initial exploration and settlement of the United States. It consists of over 75,000 entries that are sorted by text (titles, first lines, recitatives, chorus and burden), by music incipits (represented in scale degrees, stressed notes and interval sequences), with additional indexes of names and theater works. Now in electronic format, the data can be fully searched, not only for initial strings, but also for internal words and melody sections. The original project, of which this data base is an expansion, was initially sponsored by The Sonneck Society, now the Society for American Music. It was funded in part by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and grants from the City University of New York Research Award Program. It was published on microfiche by University Music Editions in two parts: • Keller,
Kate Van Winkle and Carolyn Rabson, National Tune Index:18th-C.
Secular Music (New York: University
Music Editions, 1980)
Genres Included In the Database
American Imprints American Manuscripts British and European Social Dance British and European Instrumental Music British, Canadian, Mexican and European Manuscripts Songs British Musical Theater American Imprints: (AI: 270 Sources, 11,310 Items) For this electronic edition, the data bases that comprised the two editions of The National Tune Index have been expanded. A number of sources have been added to broaden the coverage of American and British manuscript material. All extant editions of Playford's Apollo's Banquet (16701701) and several early Scottish tune collections have been added to strengthen the representation of that early period. All American dance manuscripts and printed books have been added. Several books and manuscripts listed as unlocated in NTI-2 have now been found and added to the data, including the earliest known tutor for the drum. The data base now covers over 75,000 musical pieces dating between 1394 and 1839 and forms a solid basis for the study of early American secular music and its European sources. Researchers will find that the new electronic edition is considerably easier to use and permits searches on internal strings. EASMES will prove to be a valuable source for those working in interdisciplinary studies. Scholars interested in early vernacular and semi-classical music, dance, and song will find most of the major printed British sources from 16511810 indexed and accessible through their titles, first lines, chorus lines, incipits, stressed notes, and the interval sequence of the incipit as well as any indications of author, librettist, and larger work with which the item may have been associated. Earlier European sources for wind instruments help to establish the sources of British materials and traditions that subsequently came to America. All American imprints of secular music to 1800 are included and selected early 19th-century American printed and manuscript sources. These demonstrate the power of tradition and fashion over the repertory. A large group of manuscript song, dance, and tune collections of American, English, Scottish, German, Canadian, and French origin help to identify which pieces from the printed repertory were actually in use. Tunes selected for eighteenth-century American musical clocks also show what music was most in fashion and will help in the rehabilitation of these immensely valuable artifacts. Researchers creating historically correct musical settings for stage and film will find information invaluable for choosing appropriate background or feature selections. The indexes give ready access to many unknown
and hard-to-find sources, with library identification, call number, and
precise page numbers. The data can be searched for specific tunes, special
arrangements (piano/vocal score, instrumental combinations, etc.), or for
general repertory identification. Because the music is indexed in
a numerical scale-degree code, tunes for which no title is known can also
quickly be located.
Source Index: bibliography of all sources
alphabetically by short title
Who Will Use this Material
Historians
Dance specialists Folklorists Antiques restorers Literary scholars Theatrical producers Searchers for tunes without names Social scientists and statisticians Commercial interests Using the search command, historians looking for all music associated with George and Martha Washington would locate items under "Genl," "Lady Washington," "G. Wash.," and "A Toast" in addition to a number of pieces dedicated to or performed for Washington but whose titles did not begin "Wash." Dance specialists searching for all versions of the old dance "Sir Roger de Coverly" would find many hiding under the title of "Old Roger," "Young Roger," and "New Roger." In addition, a survey of 9/8 tunes will produce a number of unexpected concordances with entirely different titles. Folklorists interested in songs associated with weddings could use internal text searches on marriage, bride, etc., and through the location of associated lyrics could find the meaning of such dance titles as "White Joke" and "Black Joke" that are often associated with marriage in contemporary satires. Several antiques restorers and dealers have used the index to date the selection of tunes on early musical clocks. In addition, when restoration is in progress, versions of the tunes selected by the original craftsman can often be located in documents produced near the location of his shop. Literary scholars will find that searches for specific words may turn up musical settings for lyrics relating to topics of interest. A recent search conducted for a scholar interested dogs and shepherds produced a number of interesting lyrics that will inform a sociological study of the changing perception of shepherding as a profession. Theatrical producers and directors seeking music for historical presentation will find period sources with authentic music of each period covered by the Index. Searchers for tunes for which no title is known are the main reason this data base was created. The frustrating feeling of knowing that a certain tune is there, but not remembering the name, can be assuaged by looking it up in the tune index. In addition, searched for a particular sequence of notes within the first three measures of music can also be fruitful. While the opening notes of many melodies change a little from version to version, the second and third measures often display more stability. Thus, searching internally helps to locate additional concordances or points up unsuspected relationships between tunes and tune families. Social scientists and statisticians can now do statistical analysis through machine access, which has never been attempted on 16th18th-century music in this scope. Studies of musical attributes prove very revealing, such as the use of certain keys for specific instruments or genres of music, or the appearance of rhythmic structures or time signatures in dance genres. For example, a detailed analysis of the shift in popular taste from the minuet to the waltz can be made from this data, using searches in text data and a compilation of relevant titles and time signatures. Comparison of data from manuscript and printed
sources will inform a study of the role played by commercial interests
in the marketing of cultural trends and fashion.
We wish to express our cordial thanks to the individual collectors as well as to the staffs and governing bodies of the many libraries and institutions in America and abroad who facilitated inclusion of information from their pertinent holdings in The National Tune Index and in this reissued and expanded new work. We thank Carolyn and Gustave Rabson for providing tapes of the source data for the first phase. Finally we are deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities, the City University of New York, the (Sonneck) Society for American Music, and to University Music Editions of New York for recognizing the importance and unique qualities of this research tool and making possible the first two phases from which this new electronic edition was developed. |
Cooper | Cooper, M. Francis. A Checklist of American Imprints 18201829. 6 vols. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 19641971. |
Curti | Curti, Martha Margaret. "John Playford's Apollo's Banquet 1670." Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1977. |
E | Evans, Charles. American Bibliography [1639–1800]. 14 vols. Chicago: Blakely Press. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 19031959. (For microprint facsimile edition, see Shipton-1) |
Fuld | Fuld, James J., and Mary Wallace Davidson. 18th-Century American Secular Music Manuscripts: An Inventory. Philadelphia: Music Library Association, 1980. |
Hixon | Hixon, Donald L. Music in Early America: A Bibliography of Music in Evans. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1970. |
Humphries | Humphries, Charles, and William C. Smith. Music Publishing in the British Isles from the Beginning until the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. 2d ed., with suppl. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1970. |
Kastner | Kastner, Georges. Manuel général de musique militaire à l'usage des armées françaises. Paris: Didot Frères, 1848; Reprint. Geneva: Minkoff, 1973. |
Keller | Keller, Kate Van Winkle. Popular Secular Music in America through 1800. A Preliminary Checklist of Manuscript Sources in North American Collections. Philadelphia: Music Library Association, 1981. |
Lennert | Lennert, V. "Altpreussische Militair-Märsche." Thouret M.M.644. Manuscript, 1893, in the Königliche Hausbibliothek, Berlin. |
Lowens | Lowens, Irving. A Bibliography of Songsters Printed in American Before 1821. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1976. |
NTI/1 | Keller, Kate Van Winkle and Carolyn Rabson. The National Tune Index: 18th-Century Secular Music. New York: University Music Editions, 1980. |
NTI/2 | Camus, Raoul. The National Tune Index: Early American Wind and Ceremonial Music 16361836. New York: University Music Editions, 1989. |
Pierre | Pierre, Constant. Les Hymnes et chansons de la révolution. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1904. |
Rubsamen | Rubsamen, Walter, ed. The Ballad Opera. New York: Garland Publishing, 1974. |
Schnapper | Schnapper, Edith B., ed. The British Union-Catalogue of Early Music Printed before the year 1801. London: Butterworths Scientific Publications, 1957. |
SS | Shaw, Ralph R. and Richard H. Shoemaker. American Bibliography, A Preliminary Checklist. [18011819]. 22 vols. New York: Scarecrow Press, 19581964. (For microprint facsimile edition, see Shipton-2.) |
Shipton-1 | Shipton, Clifford K., et al., eds. Early American Imprints, 16391800. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1956. Reproduction on Readex Microprint of the tems listed in Evans, American Bibliography. |
Shipton-2 | Shipton, Clifford K. et al., eds. Early American Imprints. 2nd Series, 18011819. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1964. Reproduction on Readex Microprint of the items listed in Shaw and Shoemaker, American Bibliography. |
Simpson | Simpson, Adrienne. "A Short-Title List of Printed English Instrumental Tutors up to 1800, Held in British Libraries." Royal Music Association Research Chronicle No. 6, 1966, 2450. |
Smith | Smith, William C. A Bibliography of the Musical Works Published by John Walsh During the Years 16951720. London: The Bibliographical Society, 1968. |
S&H | Smith, William C. and Charles Humphries. A Bibliography of the Musical Works Published by the Firm of John Walsh During the Years 17211766. London: The Bibliographical Society, 1968. |
Sonneck-Upton | Sonneck, Oscar George Theodore. A Bibliography of Early Secular American Music. Revised and enlarged by William Treat Upton. 1945. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1964. |
Thouret | Thouret, Georg. Katalog der Musiksammlung auf der Königlichen Hausbibliothek im Schlosse zu Berlin. Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1895. |
Warner | Warner, Thomas E. An Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruction Books, 16001830. Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1967. |
Whitwell | Whitwell, David. Band Music of the French Revolution. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1979. |
Wolfe | Wolfe, Richard J. Secular Music in America, 18011825, A Bibliography. New York: New York Public Library, 1964. |