American Fuging-Tunes, 1770-1820: A Descriptive Catalog

(Hardback)

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Description

The fuging-tune has long been associated with American music. Indeed, it was once thought to have been an American innovation, but research has shown that, like much else in 18th-century America, the fuging-tune had its origins in England. The American composer adopted and developed it, added his own expressive touches, and made it a primary vehicle for his musical creativity. The almost 1300 fuging-tunes by American composers published between 1770 and 1820 testify to their widespread popularity and musical impact. They represent about a quarter of all the pieces composed by American psalmodists, and are by far the most imaginative musical settings for religious poetry.

Reviews

.,."A useful work by a recognized authority for identifying and describing approximately 1,300 fuging-tunes published in American tunebooks for the period studies. The tunes are listed alphabetically under composers' names. Each entry includes a numerical incipit of the first 13 pitches of the main melody and information on the tune structure and length, fuges, rhythm, poetic meter and first line of text, and earliest sources. Recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate collections."-Choice
...A useful work by a recognized authority for identifying and describing approximately 1,300 fuging-tunes published in American tunebooks for the period studies. The tunes are listed alphabetically under composers' names. Each entry includes a numerical incipit of the first 13 pitches of the main melody and information on the tune structure and length, fuges, rhythm, poetic meter and first line of text, and earliest sources. Recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate collections.-Choice
Kroeger, catalogs 1,298 fuging-tunes, essentially every one published in America. Extremely useful multiple indexes, coinciding with the citations, conclude the volume. The author does an excellent job with his material, and users need not worry about his comprehensiveness or his scholarship. An excellent acquisition for all libraries interested in early American liturgical/secular music or those establishing a comprehensive music collection. Colonial historians would even appreciate the brief biographies, many of which are not readily found elsewhere.-RQ Summer 1994
..."A useful work by a recognized authority for identifying and describing approximately 1,300 fuging-tunes published in American tunebooks for the period studies. The tunes are listed alphabetically under composers' names. Each entry includes a numerical incipit of the first 13 pitches of the main melody and information on the tune structure and length, fuges, rhythm, poetic meter and first line of text, and earliest sources. Recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate collections."-Choice
"Kroeger, catalogs 1,298 fuging-tunes, essentially every one published in America. Extremely useful multiple indexes, coinciding with the citations, conclude the volume. The author does an excellent job with his material, and users need not worry about his comprehensiveness or his scholarship. An excellent acquisition for all libraries interested in early American liturgical/secular music or those establishing a comprehensive music collection. Colonial historians would even appreciate the brief biographies, many of which are not readily found elsewhere."-RQ Summer 1994

Author Bio

KARL KROEGER is Professor and Music Librarian at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He compiled the Catalog of the Musical Works of William Billings (Greenwood Press, 1991), and edited three of the four volumes of The Complete Works of William Billings. He has also published numerous articles in professional journals.