Classical music was brought to the United States during the colonial era. Many American composers of this period worked exclusively with European models, while others, such as Supply Belcher and Justin Morgan, also known as the First New England School, developed a style almost entirely independent of European models.Struble, p. 2. Among the country's earliest composers was William Billings who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymns in the 1770s; he was also influential "as the founder of the American church choir, as the first musician to use a pitch pipe, and as the first to introduce a violoncello into church service".Ewen, p. 7. Many of these composers were amateur singers who developed new forms of sacred music suitable for performance by amateurs, and often using harmonic methods which would have been considered bizarre by contemporary European standards.Crawford, p. 17. These composers' styles were untouched by "the influence of their sophisticated European contemporaries", using modal or pentatonic scales or melodies and eschewing the European rules of harmony.Ferris, p. 66.
Classical music was brought to the United States during the colonial era. Many American composers of this period worked exclusively with European models while others, such as Supply Belcher and Justin Morgan, also known as the First New England School, developed a style almost entirely independent of European models.Struble, p. 2. Among the country's earliest composers was William Billings who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymns in the 1770s; he was also influential "as the founder of the American church choir, as the first musician to use a pitch pipe, and as the first to introduce a violoncello into church service".Ewen, p. 7. Many of these composers were amateur singers who developed new forms of sacred music suitable for performance by amateurs, and often using harmonic methods which would have been considered bizarre by contemporary European standards.Crawford, p. 17. These composers' styles were untouched by "the influence of their sophisticated European contemporaries", using modal or pentatonic scales or melodi,es and eschewing the European rules of harmony.Ferris, p. 66.