Andrew Law (1749–1821) was an American composer,

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

and singing teacher. He was born in

Milford, Connecticut Milford is a coastal city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located between New Haven and Bridgeport. The population was 50,558 at the 2020 United States Census. The city includes the village of Devon and the borough of Woodmon ...

. Law wrote mostly simple hymn tunes and arranged tunes of other composers. In 1781, he was granted the first authorial copyright in the United States, though there is some debate about which work the grant applied to. His works include ''Select Harmony'' (1778), a ''Collection of Best Tunes and Anthems'' (1779), and ''The Art of Singing'' ''in Three Parts'' (1792–96). He was among the first American composers to put the melody in the soprano instead of the tenor part, and was also one of the first Americans to write about music. Andrew Law was a pioneer of the FASOLA ( Shape note) system of musical notation which simplified lessons in reading music during the Singing School era of New England music. FASOLA singing is also known as "Shape Note Singing". He published ''Essays on Music'' in 1814. Andrew Law died in 1821.

References

External links

Andrew Law Papers, 1775-1840
(William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan) 1749 births 1821 deaths American male composers American composers Shape note People from Milford, Connecticut People of colonial Connecticut Songwriters from Connecticut American male songwriters {{US-songwriter-stub