Chronology
1640
The Bay_Psalm_Book was the first book printed in North America.
1707
Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Psalms offers newly written hymn texts for use in churches.
1715
John Tufts wrote An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm Tunes, considered the first singing school manual.
1736
John Wesley, Collection of Psalms and Hymns, written in Savannah, GA
1742
Charles Wesley, Hymns on God's Everlasting Love, London.
1774
William Billings held his singing school in Stoughton, Mass.
1798
The first system of shape notes published in Philadelphia.
1824
- 7 May, Beethoven's 9th Symphony in D minor premiered in Vienna.
1867
Slave Songs of the United States published, collecting songs of formerly enslaved people from plantations in the South immediately after the Civil War
1882-1898
James Francis Child published 5 volumes of collected folk songs from England and Scotland, known as the Child Ballads. Many songs were found to have versions in North America.
1910
John Avery Lomax published Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, recorded some of them on wax cylinder. Unlike Cecil Sharp, he collected songs across race lines in his efforts to preserve American musical culture.
1916-1918
Cecil Sharp, English folklorist who had collected many songs in England, moved to America during World War I and collected many English ballads from the Appalachians (Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee).