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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
From the unsorted mass of Colonial folk tunes, ballads, and instrumental imitations of European music emerged two New Jersey claimants
to the title of "first American composer." Characteristic of their own
period, Francis Hopkinson (1737-1791) and James Lyon (1735-1794)
wrote occasional and patriotic music. Neither was an innovator or a national influence.
The year 1759 was the annus mirabilis specifically of New Jersey music,
generally of American music. For in that year Lyon composed an ode for
his commencement at the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Hopkinson copied his own song, "My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free,"
into a notebook containing his favorite songs. Unable to discover the
exact date of Hopkinson's composition, musical historians have differed
on the question of his priority over Lyon as the composer of the first
American song.
Hopkinson, who lived in Bordentown from 1773 until his death, was
a musical amateur, especially able on the harpsichord and therefore interested in chamber music. In November 1788 he published Seven Songs
for Harpsichord or Forte-Piano, said to be the first book of music published by an American composer. The songs, which were dedicated to
George Washington, show a strong English influence. While appealing in
their freshness they are important mainly as an indication of contemporary
taste. Hopkinson also wrote the score for The Temple of Minerva, an
allegorical-political masque or opera, privately presented in 1781.
Virtually unmentioned by musical historians until the twentieth century, Lyon was first in a long line of influential New Jersey music teachers.
Six of this Newark minister's songs appeared in the collection of hymns
and songs known as Urania, published in 1761. Among them was his
adaptation of Whitefield's Tune, the first record of a native treatment of
the tune which was to be used for America. In 1792 Lyon published
Directions for Singing, Keys in Music and Rules of Transposition, one
of the earliest American musical texts. His work as a teacher carried him
as far north as Massachusetts.
The book for The Archers, the first commercially produced American
opera, was written in 1796 by William Dunlap of Perth Amboy. Dunlap
later sandwiched cursory musical criticism into his art and literary histories.
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