A History of Music & Dance in Florida, 1565-1865

This elegant volume is the first to chronicle Florida's aboriginal and European music and dance from the South's earliest permanent settlement to the end of the Civil War. Floridians and non-Floridians have often dismissed the state's musical heritage as beginning and ending with Stephen Foster's "Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)." For this volume, music scholar Wiley L. Housewright draws on documents of cultural history largely overlooked by previous researchers to reveal the vast heritage and diversity of 300 years of Florida music and dance. Housewright examines works written and performed by Native Americans, European adventurers, backwoods pioneers, slaves, politicians, sailors, soldiers, stevedores, and professional ensembles. His narrative evokes the cultural and political background of music in Florida and the often colorful characters who sang and danced across the stage of the state's history. This volume encourages a reconsideration of the geographic orientation of American music history, as well as a vivid rediscovery of the richly diverse cultural traditions of early Florida. Wiley L. Housewrightis Professor Emeritus of Music at Florida State University.