Timeline of Music in The United States To 1819

1816

The African Methodist Episcopal Church is founded in Philadelphia, which "established a racial division in American Protestantism; music was to remain a major part of the Church's spiritual expression.
The earliest description of a specifically African American Christian music performance comes from George Tucker, who witnessed the song in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Daniel Loomis becomes the first teacher of music at the West Point Academy, and George W. Gardiner is assigned commander of the West Point Band.
Thomas Funk publishes Choral Music, a songbook that helps establish the American shape note singing tradition. Funk's descendents will carry on his legacy in founding Ruebush-Kieffer, a publishing company that will be the predecessor of most of the Southern religious music publishing firms of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Late 1810s music trends
Thomas Hastings begins composing works that use European harmonic techniques; he is one of the few American composers of the era considered to have mastered these techniques.

Timeline of Music in The United States To 1819 - 1816