ABSTRACT
Beyond military music—the signals of the fifes and drums and ceremonial marches and quicksteps of the Harmoniemusik bands—Americans and British alike sang and danced through the French and Indian Wars, Revolution and War of 1812. Based upon English musical genres, soldiers and sailors and officers alike freely wrote parodies, of familiar tunes, including “God Save the King,” “The British Grenadiers,” Derry Down,” and especially “Yankee Doodle.” “The Anacreontic Song,” in the hands of Francis Scott Key, would become “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1814. Also significant were John Dickinson’s “Liberty Song,” William Billings’s “Chester,” and Philip Phile’s “President’s March,” which became the national song “Hail, Columbia!” Church music, concerts, theater, and the music for minuets and country dances reflected issues of wartime and helped reinforce social class distinctions in America, 1754—1815. Music celebrating famous men like Judge Francis Hopkinson and Generals James Wolfe and George Washington found its way into domestic circles upon the keyboards of Nelly Custis and Mary Dorsey. Beyond manuscript and printed music, period newspapers and broadsides helped spread news, from the Boston Massacre to the surprise victory of the US Frigate Constitution, “Old Ironsides.”
