An Anthology of Music in Early Florida

"Professor Housewright's compilation of music as practiced in early Florida is of national significance. He ably demonstrates how a repertory, much of it international in scope, has been used in the context of a particular region. His work is a model for other American music historians to follow."--William K. Kearns, professor emeritus of music, University of Colorado "Florida is now a state like no other insofar as its music history is concerned. Professor Housewright has created an excellent model for scholars in the other forty-nine to emulate. . . . It will not be an easy task."--George N. Heller, University of Kansas Life in early Florida hummed to a rich treasury of music, collected here for the first time by the foremost authority on the subject. With lively and little-known stories about much of the music, Wiley Housewright presents 120 scores of songs heard between 1565 and 1865, from the first permanent settlement in the state to the last battle of the Civil War, all printed in an easy-to-read format suitable for performance today. The selections include sentimental old favorites like "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Listen to the Mockingbird" as well as less familiar music--"Cow Creek Hunting Song," a Native American piece, or "Balendalloch's Dream," the fiddle tune named after Governor James Grant's Scottish castle. Rowdy, solemn, and romantic, they include music sung by priests, stevedores, plantation owners, hardscrabble farmers, dock hands loading cotton, and the immigrants who poured into Florida from France, Spain, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Canaries, Minorca, and from other states of the young American nation. This anthology will be welcomed by performers, music teachers in all grades, readers interested in Florida culture and history, and everyone whose foot starts tapping at the sound of a polka.