Timeline of Music in The United States To 1819 - 1819

1819

• John Fanning Watson, a Wesleyan Methodist, publishes a tract called Methodist Error, which criticizes clergy that hold camp meetings, on the basis that they were relatively racially egalitarian, and the music poorly-composed and performed, especially by African Americans. Though his criticism is not entirely aimed at African Americans, the features he most identifies as religiously inappropriate are characteristically African American. His chief complaint is the use of refrains "of their own composing", referring to those include in the hymnal of Richard Allen from 1801.
• The "best-known stage for drama, concert music and opera" in Richmond, Virginia, the Richmond Theater, opens.
• John Siegling opens a music publishing firm, Siegling Music Company, in Charleston, South Carolina; it will last for many years, and will be the oldest music publishing company in operation by the time the Civil War begins.