Music in Manuscript.

The characteristic musical publication of pre-federal America was the tune collection. . . . Music also circulated in manuscript. . . . The value of most eighteenth-century American manuscript tune collections lies simply in their existence as artifacts from an earlier age." However, Susanna (Sukey) Heath's "Collection from Sundry Authors" (1782) is significant in that its owner and her family history are known; the collection and pieces included are dated; it includes works of William Billings, foremost American composer of the time. Most of the pieces are American in origin, and of those pieces that were published, differences appear between the manuscript and printed versions. Illus., 28 notes.