The life, musical activities, compositions, and musical relationships of the Boston-area composer Samuel Babcock (1760-1813) make him an archetypal psalmodist active during the period from 1790 to 1810. Research on early American Protestant sacred music to date has focused on the major composers and compilers of the period such as William Billings and Andrew Law, and on indexing the repertory. This dissertation approaches the topic from a different historiographical perspective, measuring Babcock against the criteria suggested by musicologist Nym Cooke for a composer more typical of the First New England School.
Part I of the dissertation establishes the facts of Babcocks life, analyzes and describes his music, and documents the distribution of his works. His fourth cousin, psalmodist Lemuel Babcock (1748-1835), provides a point of comparison. Samuel Babcock, active during the reform of sacred music at the turn of the nineteenth century, composed music strongly influenced by British Methodist-style psalmody. He selected sacred poetry that inspired him musically, and paid careful attention to text setting. Both Babcocks are remembered as singers, singing masters, choir leaders, and composers. However, Samuel Babcocks music is more modern than his cousins. This study of musical style and other evidence suggests that the few pieces first printed with the ambiguous attribution Babcock are very likely by Lemuel Babcock. Part II is a critical edition of both composers complete works.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-07232009-081422 |
| Date | 30 September 2009 |
| Creators | Sampsel, Laurie J. |
| Contributors | Don O. Franklin, Mary S. Lewis, Deane L. Root, Karl D. Kroeger |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07232009-081422/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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