A Historian's Introduction to Early American Music.

Suggests how historians could make fuller use of musical resources and use music as a potential source. The colonial musical tradition was strong, and music permeated much of American life, secular and religious. Musicians themselves provided the primary impetus for organization and funding, but far more central to the culture were sacred music and the oral tradition. Traces differences between music in the country and in the city. Revision of a talk presented at the semiannual meeting of the American Antiquarian Society at the Newberry Library, Chicago, 18 April 1979. Primary sources; 67 notes.