MAA 1:2 Three Caprices for Solo Violin by James Hewitt (1770-1827)

The Three Caprices for unaccompanied violin composed by James Hewitt (1770-1827) stands as the finest music for solo violin written in the United States before the 1820s. Most of the pieces published in the United States before the Civil War were intended for amateur musicians and American composers and publishers catered to their skill level and popular taste. Hewitt’s publication fits into neither category. It was written for an accomplished European immigrant violinist and dancing master who likely came to the United States to escape the French Revolution and the music requires considerable proficiency on the instrument, commensurate with the pedigree of unaccompanied violin music from Europe of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  It also reveals how good a composer Hewitt truly was and how few high-quality pieces of American music were published, let alone survived over the course of more than two centuries.