Music and America

A survey of the musical heritage of the United States in the broadest historical and stylistic terms possible: from before the Puritans past punk. Included are religious and secular music as well as popular and elite genres, such as Native American pow-wow music, Puritan hymnody and colonial singing schools, minstrelsy and parlor music, the rise of nationalism and its rejection in art music, music in the theater and in films, jazz and gospel, popular music as social enforcer and as social critic. Important figures include William Billings, Stephen Foster, Charles Ives, Louis Armstrong, Aaron Copland, Elvis Presley, and Jimi Hendrix.