Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the early development of community musical societies in Massachusetts from the time of the Revolutionary War through approximately the first forty years of the Nineteenth Century. A second purpose was to determine the importance of these societies in the history of American musical culture, by evaluating their influences upon the immediate local musical life, and by assessing their roles in subsequent musical developments. METHODS OF RESEARCH AND SOURCES OF DATA. The historical method of research was employed. The existence of many musical societies was discovered through secondary sources, such as published histories of American music, articles in periodicals and historical collections, and town and regional histories. The research was then pursued into primary sources, which included newspapers and other contemporary periodicals, unpublished records and manuscripts, and publications of the musical societies themselves. SUMMARY. Nearly one hundred community musical societies were found to have existed in Massachusetts before 1840. Those founded before 1800 were apparently not an important element in the musical life of the Commonwealth, since only widely scattered evidence of their activities was found. The most important development came after 1800, when a significant number of societies were organized for the purpose of reforming the music of the Puritan churches. A native idiom of church music, typified by the compositions of William Billings and his contemporaries, had become immensely popular in Massachusetts between 1770 and 1800. About 1800, however, clergymen and intellectual leaders began to preach sermons, organize musical societies, and publish collections of music aimed at re-orienting American musical tastes according to European standards. The most important and successful musical societies from 1800 to 1820 were county-wide in scope, and united the energies of clergymen, musicians, and interested laymen who were usually successful in their efforts to reform the church music. The psalm-tunes themselves, as found in the popular tune books of the day, became progressively more homophonic, more "correct" in terms of European harmonic practices, and more regular in phrase structure. Performance practices also underwent reform, which included (1) entrusting the melody solely to the soprano voices, (2) encouraging more women to take part in singing, (3) eliminating octave doublings of parts, (4) eliminating eighteenth-century ornamentation, (5) refining concepts of tonality, voice production, and musicianship, and (6) eliminating the male counter-tenor voice in favor of the female alto. All these reforms were effected by about 1830. / 2031-01-01

This dissertation examines pre-Kantian rational philosophy and the development of the discipline of aesthetics in the North German Enlightenment. With emphasis on the historical conception of the physiological and psychological experience of music, this project determines the function of music both privately and socially in the eighteenth century. As a result, I identify the era of rational aesthetics (ca.1750-1800) as a music-historical period unified by the aesthetic function and metaphysical experience of music, which inform the underlying motivation for musical styles, genres, and means of expression, leading to a more meaningful and compelling historical periodization. The philosophy of Alexander Baumgarten, Johann Georg Sulzer, and others enable definitions of the experience of beautiful objects and those concepts related to music composition, listening, and taste, and determine how rational aesthetics impacted the practice, function, and ultimately the prevailing style of music in the era. The construction, style, and performance means of the free fantasia, the most personal and expressive genre of the era, identify its function as the private act of solitude, or a musical meditation. An examination of pleasure societies establishes the role of music in performance and discussion in both social gatherings and learned musical clubs for conveying the morally good, which results in the spread of good taste. Taken together, the complimentary practices of private and social music played a significant role in eighteenth-century life for developing the self, through personal taste, and society, through a morally good culture.

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie studie handel oor die rol wat vroue in die Westerse musiekgeskiedenis van SuidAfrika vanaf 1652 tot 1952 gespeel bet. Vroue se bydraes en die belangrikheid daarvan word dus op haas elke denkbare gebied van die musiekmilieu gedurende die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van elke belanghebbende Westerse gemeenskap ondersoek. Hoofstukke een tot vyf konsentreer op die rol wat vroue as professione1e en amateur musikante binne die volgende streke sou vervul: Wes-Kaap, Natal, Vrystaat, Transvaal en Oos-Kaap. Hul posisies as uitvoerende kunstenaars, opvoedkundiges, beskermvroue, orkeslede, dirigente, komponiste, asook as stigters en lede van musiekverenigings word bestudeer. Hoofstuk ses stel 'n algemene beeld van die identiteit en werksaamhede van vrouemusici in die Suid-Afrikaanse musiekgeskiedenis daar. Daar word gekyk na die belangrikheid van hul bydraes en gevolglik blyk duidelik dat hul betekenis nie na waarde geskat word nie. Ten slotte word gepoog om vas te stel wat ten grondslag van hierdie ,verskynsel le. / This study deals with women musicians in the history of Western music in South Africa from 1652 to 1952. Their contributions within the origin and development of every major Western society are traced. Chapters one to five highlight women's roles as professional and amateur musicians in the following regions: Western Cape, Natal, Free State, Transvaal and Eastern Cape. Their posistions as performing artists, educators, patrons, orchestral players, conductors, composers, as well as fo'unders and members of musical societies are discussed. Chapter six recreates a general image of the identity and activity of South African women musicians. It becomes evident that their contributions are entirely underestimated. Finally the study seeks to place this misconception into proper perspective. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M. Mus.

Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie studie handel oor die rol wat vroue in die Westerse musiekgeskiedenis van SuidAfrika vanaf 1652 tot 1952 gespeel bet. Vroue se bydraes en die belangrikheid daarvan word dus op haas elke denkbare gebied van die musiekmilieu gedurende die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van elke belanghebbende Westerse gemeenskap ondersoek. Hoofstukke een tot vyf konsentreer op die rol wat vroue as professione1e en amateur musikante binne die volgende streke sou vervul: Wes-Kaap, Natal, Vrystaat, Transvaal en Oos-Kaap. Hul posisies as uitvoerende kunstenaars, opvoedkundiges, beskermvroue, orkeslede, dirigente, komponiste, asook as stigters en lede van musiekverenigings word bestudeer. Hoofstuk ses stel 'n algemene beeld van die identiteit en werksaamhede van vrouemusici in die Suid-Afrikaanse musiekgeskiedenis daar. Daar word gekyk na die belangrikheid van hul bydraes en gevolglik blyk duidelik dat hul betekenis nie na waarde geskat word nie. Ten slotte word gepoog om vas te stel wat ten grondslag van hierdie ,verskynsel le. / This study deals with women musicians in the history of Western music in South Africa from 1652 to 1952. Their contributions within the origin and development of every major Western society are traced. Chapters one to five highlight women's roles as professional and amateur musicians in the following regions: Western Cape, Natal, Free State, Transvaal and Eastern Cape. Their posistions as performing artists, educators, patrons, orchestral players, conductors, composers, as well as fo'unders and members of musical societies are discussed. Chapter six recreates a general image of the identity and activity of South African women musicians. It becomes evident that their contributions are entirely underestimated. Finally the study seeks to place this misconception into proper perspective. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M. Mus.