I felt also that the diversity of the total experience rendered much of it mysterious. And I felt that because so much of it which appeared unrelated was actually most intimately intertwined, it needed exploring. Years of studying the subject had taught me that standard musicological approaches left certain key issues unaddressed. It made sense to be told that an exploration of broader scope might illuminate parallels and intertwinings that give this country's music making its distinctive character. A History seeks to conduct such an exploration by taking performance rather than composition as a starting point.
Composers are by no means slighted here.
But in a chronicle that begins in the 1500s and seeks at every point to portray the historical conditions in which music has been made, they share the stage with singers, players, conductors, teachers, entrepreneurs, and even writers, not to mention musical creators from overseas. We begin, for example, with Native American music, which circulated orally. The narrative moves on to trace the musical traditions, oral and written, brought to North America by European settlers, and the impact of the African diaspora. It persistently probes links between musical notation and economic opportunity. Tending to preserve each culture's linguistic and musical practices, the traditional sphere is ruled by a belief in continuity.