Custom essays: Music of the Thirteen Colonies

Music played an important part in the life of the thirteen colonies founded by the British in America, which laid the foundation to the US. In fact, the music of the thirteen colonies derived from European music because European impact was very significant in colonies in the early stage of the colonization. On the other hand, the thirteen colonies had managed to develop their own original, unique music which mirrored the life of colonists and distinguished them from the British and other Europeans. In addition, the thirteen colonies were vulnerable to the impact of Native American music which also affected the development of music in the thirteen colonies. In such a way, the music in the thirteen colonies was a sort of bland of European music, Native American music and local musical traditions developed by colonists but the general trend in the development of the music in the thirteen colonies was the shift from the music of the upper-class to the folk music as the mainstream music.
First of all, the emergence of music in the thirteen colonies was vulnerable to a considerable impact of British and European music. Representatives of the upper-class, who moved to colonies, preferred music of Mozart and Haydn, whom they viewed as renowned composers and great authorities in the field of music. At the same time, they denied the talent and significance of local composers because they believed that colonists had poor education and they did not know the most advanced trends in the development of modern music. In this regard, the colonial music was viewed as inferior to European music and representatives of the upper-class maintained this disparity.
In the course of time, the close relationship between colonists and their European motherland grew weaker. Representatives of the upper-class attempted to maintain contacts with Europe traveling to Britain and Europe. However, cultural and, therefore, musical links between Europe and the thirteen colonies became weaker. Naturally, the impact of European music on music in colonies became weaker too and local music has started to rise and to replace European traditions. In such a way, local composers and musicians had started to bring in local elements in the music of the thirteen colonies.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that traditional European music had started to change under the impact of local trends in music (Broughton, 2000). For instance, fiddling, which traditionally originated from Scottish music, contributed to the emergence of square dances, based on the cotillion and cakewalks along with African American imitations of white dances and the Virginia Reel, which emerged in the 19th century America (). In addition, lined-out hymnody emerged on the ground of the local religious music in the thirteen colonies, which had little in common with traditional religious music in England or other parts of Europe.
On analyzing the changes that occurred to music in the thirteen colonies, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the music shifted from music for upper-classes to folk music, which grew more and more popular in the colonies (Chase, 2000). Colonists, many of which did not have good musical education, preferred folk music, which was more comprehensible for them and did not need any special knowledge in the field of music. Nevertheless, such seeming simplification did not make music in the thirteen colonies worse or better than European music. Instead, this seeming simplification of music made music in the thirteen colonies different from European music and British music.
At the same time, colonists preserved some links with British and European music. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the New England music, which was the music of Puritan immigrants and which preserved some elements of the Roman Catholic music. The New England music comprised spiritual psalms, which was conveyed to the audience with the help of music and became more comprehensible and better perceived by the audience. Nevertheless, this music also acquired local features and new trends emerged in this music, including the appearance of church bands, which were absolutely new phenomenon in the development of the church music.
Finally, the development of music in the thirteen colonies was vulnerable to the impact of Native American music. In fact, the Native American music was totally different from European music because Indians inhabiting America did not have contacts with Europeans before the colonization and they developed their own music (Ferris, 1993). Naturally, colonists borrowed some elements of the Native American music when they had started to develop contacts with the local population. As a result, they brought in new elements in the music of the thirteen colonies. However, the Native American music had never become the mainstream music in colonies but it was rather a supportive music, which elements were used in European music and in music of colonists.
Thus, in conclusion, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the music of the thirteen colonies was closely intertwined with European music but it had developed its own original style, genres and movements which distinguished colonial music from European one.

References:
Broughton, S. et al. (Ed.) (2000). Rough Guide to World Music. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.
Chase, G. (2000). America’s Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. University of Illinois Press.
Ferris, J. (1993). America’s Musical Landscape. Brown & Benchmark.