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MUSIC OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: America at 250
This resource and database contains 954 musical works, written in the past century, on American themes - its people, literature, history, and geography. It represents both the composers of today and the composers of America's history.
Below you will find a musical timeline, six America 250 themed collections, the America 250 restoration projects, and a detailed search and browse area covering the full database.
Much of this music is made available thanks to ACA's nonprofit activities in music preservation. These works are at the heart of ACA's mission: curating and distributing American concert music materials, ready for performance and study, while managing the archives with care for future generations.
Themed Collections
Full Detailed Catalog
Search tool for
Search and filter tool for items from all sixed themed collections in Music of the American Experience.
Or, start with the below common searches.
Vocal ensembles: Voice(s) and Keyboard - Choral a cappella - Choral with accompaniment
Small ensembles: Instrumental Solos - Solos with Keyboard - Duos - Trios - String Quartet - Woodwind Quintet
Large ensembles: String Orchestra - Chamber/Full Orchestra - Orchestra with Voice(s) - Wind Ensemble/Band
American Poetry and Writing
The 450 musical works in this collection are based on American poetry, literature, letters, speeches, and diary entries, and include an enormous range of authors - from popular writers like Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson to personal letters and poetry by complete unknowns.
Many of these works are for vocalists, using the text directly as lyrics or libretto. Other works are instrumental, or without words, and use the texts as inspiration or for programmatic effect.
American History
Composers have long written musical responses and reactions to historical events. Explore music on or about events preceding the Declaration of Independence to the modern day.
American Cities, Landscapes, and Locations
The six dozen pieces in this collection range from tone poems on Wisconsin and Alaska to reflections on rivers in Hawaii, pictures of neighborhoods in Nashville, and strolls down various New York boroughs.
American Emancipation and Civil Rights
These fifty musical works touch on the history of Black struggle in America, and many are based on speeches, letters, or literature of the Civil War and Civil Rights eras.
Native American and Indigenous History
The works in this collection touch on Indigenous histories, art, and ideas from the past ten thousand years. Written from both Native and non-Native perspectives, they hold a generally sympathetic perspective to the changes brought by the American empire to the North American continent.
American Folk Songs and Spirituals
The 90+ works in this collection use traditional American music as the basis for art songs, instrumental works, and other musical explorations.
An American Timeline
Musical responses to America's history, pre-founding to present, by America's composers.
PART I
Prehistory, the American Revolution, and the start of the Civil War (9,000 BCE - 1861 CE)
PART II
Emancipation, Progress, and the World Wars (1861 - 1945)
PART III
Civil Rights, the Vietnam War, and Modern Hopes and Tragedies (1949 - )
The Restoration Project
The Complete Restoration Project
These two hundred and fifty works comprise the America at 250 Music Restoration Project, which aims to bring this unavailable music out of archives and into modern editions for musicians, organizations, and libraries.
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