RESOURCES OF AM MUSIC HIS (Music in American Life)

The scope of American music reaches in time from the days of the first settlers up to today; in space from the Atlantic to the Pacific; in situations from the campfire around which folksongs were sung to the steel and granite of the Metropolitan Opera. The musical activity itself extends from the casual circumstances of listening amusement to the demanding circumstances of a concert artist's career. Our national celebrities have ranged from William Billings to George Gershwin, from Stephen Foster to Charles Ives, from John Philip Sousa to Louis Armstrong. Beyond the limelights are those heroes who are unsung, as well as many who in their own days were not even singing: music teachers and critics, merchants and managers, patrons and listeners. America's musicians were not always able to read musical notation. But fortunately they lived in a literate society. Paper and ink_and later, sound recordings as well_were used to document their musical activities and their music. The present text is a survey of the evidence of this musical life, as recorded in documents located in 3000 repositories in the United States and abroad. By University of Illinois Press