Daniel Read (November 16, 1757 – December 4, 1836) was an American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
of the
First New England School
Yankee tunesmiths (also called the First New England School) were self-taught composers active in New England from 1770 until about 1810. Their music was largely forgotten when the Better Music Movement turned musical tastes towards Europe, as in ...
, and one of the primary figures in early American classical music.
Life and work
Read, along with his contemporaries
William Billings
William Billings (October 7, 1746 – September 26, 1800) is regarded as the first American choral composer and leading member of the First New England School.
Life
William Billings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of 14, t ...
,
Oliver Holden
Oliver Holden (September 18, 1765 – September 4, 1844) was an American composer and compiler of hymns.
Biography
He was born in Shirley, Massachusetts. During the American Revolutionary War, he was a marine for a year (1782–1783) on the US ...
,
Supply Belcher
Supply Belcher (March 29, 1751 – June 9, 1836) was an American composer, singer, and compiler of tune books. He was one of the so-called Yankee tunesmiths or First New England School, a group of mostly self-taught composers who created sacred vo ...
, and
Justin Morgan
Justin Morgan (February 28, 1747 – March 22, 1798) was a U.S. horse breeder and composer.
He was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and by 1788 had settled in Vermont. In addition to being a horse breeder and farmer, he was a teacher of ...
, was one of the primary members of a group of American composers called the
Yankee tunesmiths
Yankee tunesmiths (also called the First New England School) were self-taught composers active in New England from 1770 until about 1810. Their music was largely forgotten when the Better Music Movement turned musical tastes towards Europe, as in ...
or the First New England School. While the
classical music era
The Classical period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820.
The Classical period falls between the Baroque and the Romantic periods. Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music, but a more sophistic ...
was in its heyday in Europe, American composers of "serious" music were setting
hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrain ...
s in three- and four-part
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
style, with simple folklike melodies and little regard for functional
harmony
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
. Many of these works were
fuguing tune
The fuguing tune (often fuging tune) is a variety of Anglo-American vernacular choral music. It first flourished in the mid-18th century and continues to be composed today.
Description
Fuguing tunes are sacred music, specifically, Protestant hym ...
s, which begin with all voices singing together (with a melody usually based on a
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
hymn), come to a stop, and continue with each voice entering one at a time. Nearly all were hymn tunes, developed for the use of the newly-forming singing societies.
Once a private in the Massachusetts militia, later a comb-maker and owner of a general store in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
, Read was only the third American composer to put out a collection of his own music (after William Billings and Simeon Jocyln). This work, ''The American Singing Book'' (1785), went through five editions in the years immediately following: unusually successful for its day, making him by number of printings the most popular composer in the nation. To that must be added the number of published compilations of tunes that used his works (not always with his permission); "Sherburne", a 1785 tune originally from the ''American Singing Book'', a setting of the
Nahum Tate
Nahum Tate ( ; 1652 – 30 July 1715) was an Irish poet, hymnist and lyricist, who became Poet Laureate in 1692. Tate is best known for ''The History of King Lear'', his 1681 adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', and for his libretto for ...
carol "
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks," appeared over seventy times in print before 1810.
Read made his living by operating a general store in New Haven, but supplemented his income by compiling and publishing tunebooks himself (which often contained his original works as well), including ''The Columbian Harmonist'' (three volumes: 1793, 1794, 1795, revised 1805, 1807, 1810) and ''The New Haven Collection of Sacred Music'' (1818). ''An Introduction to Psalmody'' (1790) was not a tunebook – in fact, it contained no music whatsoever, but was rather a pamphlet to instruct aspiring composers. Together with engraver
Amos Doolittle
Amos Doolittle (May 18, 1754 – January 30, 1832) was an American engraver and silversmith, known as "The Revere of Connecticut." His engravings included portraits and maps, made in his New Haven, Connecticut studio. He became famous for his ...
, Read published ''The American Musical Magazine'' in twelve issues from 1786 through 1787.
Read was influenced by the practices in European music in his later years, and later repudiated the compositions in the style that he exemplified and helped define. Three of the six works of his in the 1818 ''New Haven Collection'' were "corrected" to more closely conform to European standards before reprinting in that volume; his later manuscripts are works imitating the styles of European devotional music.
Several of Read's tunes, such as "Greenwich", "Windham", and "Sherburne", are still sung in American churches; in addition to those tunes, "Judgment", "Lisbon", "Russia", "Stafford", "Windham", and "Winter" appear in ''The Core Repertory of Early American Psalmody'', a scholarly anthology of the 101 most often reprinted sacred tunes in pre-1810 America, as compiled by Richard Crawford. His work is also popular among
Sacred Harp
Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The name is derived from ''The Sacred Harp'', a ubiquitous and historically important tune ...
singers; eleven of his tunes appear in ''The Sacred Harp, 1991 Edition''. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Read was one of the favorite composers performed by the
Stoughton Musical Society
Organized in 1786 as The Stoughton Musical Society, it is America's oldest performing musical organization. For over two centuries it has had many distinguished accomplishments. In 1908, when incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massa ...
. There are fourteen of his tunes in ''The Stoughton Musical Society's Centennial Collection of Sacred Music'', reprinted in 1980, with a new Introduction by Roger L. Hall.
Read's surviving writings and portrait may be found today at the
New Haven Museum and Historical Society
The New Haven Museum and Historical Society (originally known as the New Haven Colony Historical Society) was founded in 1862 in New Haven, Connecticut for the purposes of preserving and presenting the region’s history. The museum has a collectio ...
in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
.
Example
"Windham" is a 1785 song by Daniel Read, and one of his best-known works.
![WindhamWithRegularNotes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/WindhamWithRegularNotes.PNG)
Verse 2, 3 and 4 follow.
V 2 Deny thyself and take thy cross, Is the Redeemers great command; Nature must count her gold but dross, If she would gain this heavenly land.
V 3 The fearful soul that tires and faints, And walks the ways of God no more, Is but esteemed almost a saint, And makes his own destruction sure.
V 4 Lord, Let not all my hopes be vain, Create my heart entirely new, Which hypocrites could ne'er attain, Which false apostates never knew.
See also
*
Music of the United States before 1900
The colonial history of the United States began in 1607 with the colonization of Jamestown, Virginia. Music of all genres and origins emerged as the United States began to form. From the Indigenous spiritual music to the African banjos, music ...
*
American classical music
American classical music is music written in the United States in the European classical music tradition. In many cases, beginning in the 18th century, it has been influenced by American folk music styles; and from the 20th century to the presen ...
*
Fuguing tune
The fuguing tune (often fuging tune) is a variety of Anglo-American vernacular choral music. It first flourished in the mid-18th century and continues to be composed today.
Description
Fuguing tunes are sacred music, specifically, Protestant hym ...
References
*Richard Crawford, Nym Cooke: "Daniel Read".
Grove Music Onlin
(subscription access).
*Roger Hall, editor. The Stoughton Musical Society's Centennial Collection of Sacred Music, 1878 (reprint, DaCapo Press, 198
*H. Wiley Hitchcock (1969). ''Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction''. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
*Kroeger, Karl, ed. (1995).
Daniel Read, Collected Works ''Music of the United States of America (MUSA) vol. 4. Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions.
External links
at the Cyber Hymnal
Daniel Reada
Music of the United States of America (MUSA)*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Daniel
1757 births
1836 deaths
American male classical composers
American classical composers
Classical-period composers
Shape note
19th-century American composers
19th-century American male musicians