Musica Americana Arcana Introduction

Musica Americana Arcana presents largely unknown works by musicians active in the British North American Colonies and later United States from its earliest founding to the mid-nineteenth century. It offers new insight into the range of musical activity in early America and the people who composed, performed from, and disseminated these scores. Exploring the varied musical landscape of a formative period of American culture and cultural life, it features both music composed in the New World, and music by composers who emigrated from Europe to the colonies and later the United States. These editions focus not only on transplanted European trends in vernacular and cultivated musical traditions, but also those practices that represent the unique blend of cultures that make up American society, documenting a gradual creolization of American culture.

Each volume consists of a critical scholarly edition in a format intended for both scholar and performer at an affordable price. Too often, the cost of critical editions prevents the purchase of these scores by all but academic libraries and institutions. Musica Americana Arcana is intended to make these works not only widely available, but more importantly, accessible to a broad audience with an interest in earlier American culture.

Within the collection are scores for an array of instruments, including violin, violoncello, viola da gamba, guitar, harp, flute, clarinet, banjo, horn, piano, and organ, among others. The ensemble works vary from unaccompanied solos to trio sonatas, to string quartets, to Harmonie band pieces, to overtures and symphonies, besides more intimate works for solo voices and full choir. All have been selected for their interest not as quaint historical pieces of Americana, but as important cultural and musical markers that offer fresh insight into the roots of American musical culture.