Timeline of Music in The United States To 1819 - 1805

1805

• Shape note singing grows in popularity and expands in influence after William Smith and William Little's The Easy Instructor is picked up by an Albany, New York publisher.
• The Salem Collection of Classical Sacred Musick is published in Salem, Massachusetts; it is described by traditionalist psalmodist Nathaniel D. Gould as a spearhead for musical reform in New England churches.
• Approximate: Musical reformers of psalmody, who promote "European standards and 'correct taste'", begin using the name of George Frideric Handel to symbolize the idealized music they prefer.
• Richard McNemar converts to become a Shaker; he will become known as the "Father of Shaker music", and is the most prolific composer of Shaker hymns and anthems.
• Librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte emigrates to the United States, where he will help to introduce opera to mainstream Americans.