Timeline of Music in The United States To 1819 - 1761

1761

• James Lyon publishes in Philadelphia the "first American tunebook to address the needs of both congregation and choir", Urania, or a Choice Collection of Psalm-Tunes, Anthems, and Hymns. This tunebook offers "something for every kind of sacred singer" and "was the first American tunebook to bring psalmody straight into the commercial arena", showing "how psalmody... could find a niche in the marketplace". The collection features the first published American anthems, fuging tunes and hymn tunes. It is also the first work to identify its songs as "new", meaning composed in the colonies. Twenty-eight of the songs include both music and text, and are the first such printings in the country.
• Barzillai Lew, a free-born African American musician from Massachusetts, becomes an Army fifer and drummer during the French and Indian War. His wife, Dinah Bowman, is the first black woman in history to be identified as a pianist. The Lew family is prominent in the area around Dracut, Massachusetts, and the family remains musically renowned well into the 20th century.