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New England Music Archive [NEMA]
Roger Hall, Director
"Angel of Peace" is included in this collection for the World's Peace Jubilee, Boston, June, 1872. It has been recorded for the first time -- see No. 32 under New England's Top 40 below.
The New England Music Archive is a collection of recordings and scores intended to preserve rare and historical music from New England's past, roughly between the landing of the Pilgrims (1620) and the end of World War I (1920). The aim is to make available music for research, performance, and recording. Emphasis is placed on vocal music for solo voice and/or chorus, but shorter instrumental works are also included.
New England's "Top 40" From the Past
Compiled by Roger Hall
The survey covers only vocal selections which span roughly three centuries,
from 1620 to 1920.The titles have been set up like a pop chart listing the Top 40. While there is no way to judge accurately the popularity of music from these years, these 40 selections are representative examples of the vast amount of vocal music performed, composed and published in New England during these centuries.
The music listed below includes psalms, ballads, hymns, anthems, music from cantatas and oratorios, folk spirituals, war and anti-war songs, sentimental songs, and patriotic songs.
They include music from such New England composers as: William Billings, Dudley Buck, George W. Chadwick, Jacob French, Oliver Holden, Jeremiah Ingalls, Charles Ives, Edwin A. Jones, Lowell Mason, and Daniel Read.
Here are two sample audio files using Real Player:
What follows is a list of New England's vocal music from the past, containing both well known and unfamiliar pieces, mainly in live concert performances, and available on the two CDRs listed at the end of the list. The selections are listed
in roughly chronological sequence:I. Pilgrims
1. Pilgrims: Psalm 8 - Ainsworth Psalter [CDR 1]
2. Pilgrims: Psalm 100 - Ainsworth Psalter [CDR 1]II. Purtians
3. Puritans: Psalm 23 - Bay Psalm Book, 1698 [CDR 1]
4. Reformer: Psalm 100 Tune New - Rev. John Tufts, 1720s [CDR 1]III. Pirates and Native Americans
5. Pirate Ballad: Captain Kidd [CDR 1]
6. Narragansett Indian Hymn: My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord [CDR 1]IV. Birth of Liberty and The American Revolution
7. Propaganda Song: The Liberty Song - words: John Dickinson, 1768 [CDR 1]
8. Ballad: Free America (tune: British Grenadiers) - words: Dr. Joseph Warren [CDR 1]
9. Ballad: The Lexington March (tune: Yankee Doodle) [CDR 1]
10. War Song: Father and I Went Down to Camp (tune: Yankee Doodle, ca. 1776) [CDR 1]
11. War Song: Chester - William Billings, 1778 & 1786 [CDR 1]
12. Thanksgiving Hymn (tune: Kittery - William Billings,1778)(ed. by Roger Hall) [CDR 1]V. New England Singing Masters
13. Majesty - William Billings, 1778 [CDR 2]
14. The Bird - William Billings, 1790 [CDR 1]
15. Confidence - Oliver Holden, 1793 [CDR 2]
16. Coronarion - Oliver Holden, 1793 [CDR 2]
17. Victory - Daniel Read, 1793 [CDR 1]
18. Northfield - Jeremiah Ingalls [CDR 2]
19. New Jerusalem - Jeremiah Ingalls, 1796 [CDR 1]
20. Dormant - Jacob French, 1802 [CDR 1]VI. Federalism to Old Folks Concerts
21. Federalism Song: Adams and Liberty - words: Thomas R.T. Paine, 1798 [CDR 1]
22. Anti-War Song: Come, Gentle Peace - words: Esther Talbot, 1814 [CDR 2]
23. Patriotic Song: My Country 'Tis of Thee - words: Samuel F. Smith, 1831 [CDR 2]
24. Old Folks Concert Anthem: Jerusalem, My Glorious Home - Lowell Mason, 1840s [CDR 2]
25. Old Folks Concert Anthem: Jehovah's Praise - Edward White, 1850s [CDR 2]
26. Song of the Old Folks (tune: Auld Lang Syne) - words: Albert Laighton, 1855 [CDR 2 ]VII. The Civil War and Peace
27. Ballad: John Brown (tune: Glory, Hallelujah) - words: C.S. Hall (?), 1861 [CDR 1]
28. Battle Hymn of the Republic (tune: Glory, Hallelujah) - words: Julia Ward Howe, 1862 [CDR 1]
29. Shaker Pacifisit Hymn: A Prayer for the Captive, 1862 - Cecilia DeVere (ed. R. Hall)[CDR 1]
30. Afro-American Spiritual: Go Down, Moses [CDR 1]
31. Hymn: Give Us This Day - Stephen Foster, 1863 (ed. by Lorna Cooke de Varon) [CDR 1]
32. Festival Song: Angel of Peace - words: Oliver Wendell Holmes/ music: Keller's American Hymn [CDR 1] -- written for the National peace Jubilee in Boston in 1869, this song was reprinted in the 1872 World's Peace Jubilee collection [see above title page illustration].VIII. The 1870s and 1880s
33. Temperance Song: Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, 1870s [CDR 2]
34. US Centennial Cantata: Centennial Meditation of Columbia - Dudley Buck, 1876 [CDR 2]
35. Cantata Aria: How beautiful upon the mountains - Edwin A. Jones, from Song of Our Saviour,1881 (First Concert Performance, 1992) [CDR 1]
IX. 1890 - 1910
36. Oratorio Chorus: The Lord is King - Edwin A. Jones, 1890 (First Modern Performance)[CDR 2]
37. Chorus: Easter Carol - Charles Ives, 1892 [CDR 2]
38. Cantata Chorale: How Lovely Shines the Morning Star - George W. Chadwick,1909 [CDR 2]X. World War I
39.Patriotic Chorus: Song of the Marching Men - Henry Hadley, 1919 [CDR 1]
40.Patriotic Chorus: Land of Our Hearts - George W. Chadwick, 1918 [CDR 1]
CDRs for the 40 selections listed above:
CDR 1: New England Song Treasury (70:32)
CDR 2: American Choral Sampler (66:28)
To inquire about any of the music, write to:
Read about music from earlier New England at the
If you are a musician, researcher, student or teacher and
would like to join as an NEMA Associate, write to:
New England Music Recordings
Research Articles
These are a few of the articles relating to New England music from the past in American Music, the journal published by The Society For American Music:
"Dudley Buck and the Secular Cantata" by Lee Orr (Vol 21/ No 4, Winter 2003)
[note: Buck's 1876 cantata is recorded on American Choral Sampler ]
"Chadwick's Melopomene and the Anxiety of Influence" by E. Douglas Bomberger (Vol 21/ No 3, Fall, 2003)
"Charles Ives's (Utopian, Pragmatists, Nostalgic, Progressive, Romantic, Modernist) Yankee Realism" by Marc E. Johnson (Vol 20/ No 2, Summer 2002)
"Charles Ives, Cowboys, and Indians: Aspects of the 'Other Side of Pioneering' by Denise Von Glahn (Vol 19/No 3 (Fall 2001)
For information about The Society For American Music, click on this link:
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American Music Recordings Collection
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Society for Earlier American Music [SEAM]
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