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Featured Essay

Harpsichord: 1793 Original and Nelly’s “New”

At Mount Vernon reside two very lovely, and essentially identical harpsichords, one old and one new, constructed some 225 years apart. Only the newer one can be heard, however.

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What was Colonial or "Early American" music?

Colonial music was not so much music written in America before the Revolution as it was music that was brought here and helped define the people who were to make a new country.

Were there bands in Early America?

There were bands in early America, but they did not have the same instrumentation as marching or concert bands of today.

Did George Washington dance?

Yes, George Washington attended assemblies, balls with friends, parties with fellow officers and their ladies, and dances with the French allies.

What is the Bull-Finch?

The Bull-Finch is a songster or a bound collection of lyrics to songs without musical notation of their melodies. Mount Vernon's copy is inscribed "Martha Washington 1759" on the title page in George Washington's handwriting.

What did dance look like in Colonial America?

Eighteenth-century social dance is a complex topic. Every occasion where dancing occurred looked different from most others.

Learn How to Dance

The dance techniques throughout the period changed frequently as new fashions and fads swept across the land. The dances most frequently performed in 18th-century America were the country dance, the cotillion, the minuet, and the reel.

Francis Hopkinson

A lawyer, statesman, judge, scientist, and inventor, Francis Hopkinson was intimately involved in shaping and reporting upon the 18th century. He was also a poet, performer, arranger, and composer of music. Additionally, Hopkinson corresponded with George Washington about music.

What are the real words to "Yankee Doodle?"

The lyrics that George Washington probably heard sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" are not the words now known around the world.

Was the “Star-Spangled Banner” an old drinking song?

The words to our national anthem have nothing to do with the consumption of alcohol, but the melody that Francis Scott Key had in mind when he wrote those words did originate decades earlier as the melody for a song in praise of wine.

Clothing in Early America

Clothing and instruction on how to move in them helped create visible and portable signs of personal and commercial achievement.

Social Change as Reflected in The Dancing Master

The first edition of The Dancing Master appeared in 1651 with 105 dances. Succeeding volumes show the editor’s desire to gratify his customers’ desires as various dances were dropped or added, and the whole was rearranged and modernized.

Fiddle, Dance, and Sing With George Bush

George Bush recorded a lively and personal glimpse into the leisure times of the officers of George Washington's army during and immediately after the Revolutionary War.

Ancient Fifes and Drums

"Ancient" fifers and drummers are not re-enactors but are traditional musicians whose music, dress, and drill retain vestiges of their eighteenth-century military heritage.

Levi Lovering and His Mode of Notes

Levi Lovering left a small handwritten collection of drum beatings dating from the mid-to-late 1790s that culminated in the publication of The Drummers’ Assistant or the Art of Drumming Made Easy.

Was there Music at Jamestown?

Music was part of life in early Virginia--we just do not know what music.

A March Allegedly Played by the British at Yorktown

Since 1881, a story has circulated among some Americans that the British played a march called “The World Turned Upside Down” during their surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. Is there any truth in this story?

On the Set of “The Last Of The Mohicans”

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a historic choreographer for a movie?

Databases

Many of the above essays would not have been possible without the databases created through the Colonial Music Institute.

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