European Influences on American Music

Students understand the legacy of American colonists, identifying the changes and the continuity between European music and early American music. With the introduction of early American instruments, such as the fiddle and the dulcimer, teaching artists explore how European musical traditions contributed to American civilization. By listening to, learning songs from, and playing instruments from early America, students understand the historical foundations of contemporary American music. In this two-workshop series, students collaborate in pairs or in groups to present their original Broadsides—a traditional American music form that, through song, relates the time’s current events.