This can be compared with the first musical influences on and compositions by Li Jinhui. The traditional forms were explored thoroughly before new ideas in music were explored.
Culturally, the new Americans at the time were deeply religious, following the Puritan tradition on which they based their way of life. Their music therefore reflected this tradition, and the earliest genres were mainly religious in nature. As such, the musical format was unaccompanied by musical instruments, as these were viewed as secular and therefore sinful. The same type of division can be seen in the later genres of Asian music, where Cantopop began to lose its popularity in the face of new and more trendy developments. In contrast, however, the Chinese does not have as clear a distinction between the religious and the secular as did the Americans at the time.
William Billings (1746-1800), as the first American composer, can be compared with Li in the traditional influences on his music. Another unique influence on his music was his deformities. Billings had legs of unequal length, a withered hand and only one eye. While he was therefore influenced by the traditional psalmody, he also had a large amount of anger and bitterness that manifested themselves in his parodies. An example of this is the Lamentation over Boston, a parody of Psalm 137. In this way, he used tradition like Li, in order to form a new form of music, even though this was based upon a more rebellious nature than that of Li.
International Influence
American music can also be compared with that of Asia in terms of international influence. In contrast to Li, Billings was not sufficiently influential to change the entire musical scene in the United States, although his work signified an important departure from tradition. Immigrants brought with them some much-needed imagination to the music of the country.
German, Swedish and Moravian immigrants brought with them a rich variety of musical traditions form their home countries. During 1744, a Collegium Musicum was founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Almost a century later, a Philharmonic Society was brought into being, in which the foundations for American art music were laid. Wright mentions immigrants such as J.F. Peter, Giovannic Gualdo and Joseph Gehot, who brought to the United States music that was modeled on traditional European music in the symphonic genre. One of the prominent names in American art music is Alexander Reinagle. He was born in Portsmouth to Austrian parents and studied in Edinburgh. During his stay in London, Reinagle found himself influenced by Johann Christian Bach. He emigrated to American in 1786, and held a position as manager at the Wignell Theater in 1792. Here he gave concerts in which he introduced the United States to a large amount of European music.
Art music was therefore mostly influenced by the European tradition. Not being particularly revolutionary in either style or format, this music can be said to lay the traditional foundations for later forms of American music, like the traditional Chinese music mentioned above.
New Culture
According to Tom Faigin, the early 1800s in American music was mostly influenced by British and European styles of music, without much innovation towards a truly American genre of music. This is indicative of the fact that the culture of the United States at this time was mostly made up of European and British immigrants whose roots still lay in their native countries. A collective cultural consciousness had not yet developed in the United States. Such a consciousness developed after the 1812 War. Americans were beginning to develop a sense of freedom and yearned for independence from their countries of origin. A new cultural collective developed, which was based on the uniquely American experience. On this basis, new forms of music could be developed.
A remnant of the Puritan tradition is the religious restriction against dancing. Rather than submit to this, the new culture of freedom dictated that music be used to circumvent this restriction. The play party song was a genre that required dancing and singing in combination, and was therefore not considered sinful. New songs such as "Skip to My Lou" and "Buffalo...
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