Last Monday, January 4th at the West Street Library, David Hildebrand gave an exciting and unusual talk to the Annapolis History Consortium on ”Music of the War of 1812: A Preliminary Report via Song, Story, and Image.”
In his advance materials, David told us that we would learn about how the War of 1812 spawned “a huge variety of songs and dance tunes in America. Some describe great sea battles like the Shannon and the Chesapeake, others laud naval heroes like Rodgers and Perry or celebrate Hull’s victory, and one particular song, our national anthem, carries an especially interesting and now controversial story. This is music and song that Annapolitans heard c.1814 and, it is hoped will hear again in 2012 and years following.”
David and his wife Ginger are the musicologists and performers behind the Colonial Music Institute, http://www.colonialmusic.org/index.htm. David has a M.A. from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Catholic University, and wrote his dissertation on the musical life of Annapolis between 1649–1776. (I’ll have to read that, sounds interesting! Annapolis is a center for the arts and apparently has been since the 17th century.)
The biography on his website tells us that in addition to performing professionally with his wife Ginger since 1980, David has lectured widely and published articles and reviews in such journals as The William and Mary Quarterly and Maryland Historical Magazine. He has served a music consultant for a variety of projects ranging from museum exhibits to PBS television documentaries, and was the musicology consultant for the Maryland History Bibliography project I worked on when I was with the Maryland Humanities Council in 2002. He frequently combines his easy-to-listen-to lecture style (for all ages! I can attest) with musical performances, which are even more elaborate and educational when Ginger accompanies him.
David explained that after his years of research and working with musical broadsheets, song books and songsters (these printed verses without the musical notations), he can interpret musical references as easily as the 18th and 19th century readers could – those early audiences would know the tunes that the brief notations referenced, but today’s audiences do not, unless they’ve studied as much as David has!
David is currently researching the musical background for the War of 1812, in preparation for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812 that Maryland will celebrate soon – preparations are well underway (see http://starspangled200.org)! His studies will culminate in a music CD and a book (complete with music).
To read some his thoughts on Francis Scott Key and the writing of our national anthem in advance of his book, visit the website (and check out the resources there): http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm
David is an amazing heritage resource himself – we’ll keep you posted as his research develops.
– Carol Benson
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