Music and Some Highly Musical People

Transcriber's Note
About this book: James Monroe Trotter (1842-1892) was born into slavery in Mississippi. His mother escaped with Trotter and his brother via the Underground Railroad, and they settled in Cincinnati, where Trotter became a teacher. He moved to Boston and fought in the Civil War, becoming the first African-American to achieve the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Union Army. He later became the first African-American to be employed by the U.S. Post Office, but resigned in protest when discrimination prevented his promotion. His Music and Some Highly Musical People, written in 1878, is said to be the first comprehensive study of music written in the United States. In 1887, President Cleveland appointed Trotter to the office of Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, succeeding the great African-American statesman Frederick Douglass in what was then the highest government position to be attained by an African-American. (Source: Wikipedia.) This e-book was prepared from a 1968 reprint published by the Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected in the text and the music. Except where otherwise noted, inconsistencies and errors in the spelling of proper names and non-English words are underlined in red; hover the mouse over the underlined text to see a pop-up Transcriber's Note. Transcriber's Notes for the music are contained in the MusicXML files.
Several subheadings are rendered in the original in blackletter. In this e-book, these are rendered as bold italic .
This e-book contains some musical flat symbols, which may not display properly depending on the fonts the user has installed. Hover the mouse over the symbol to see a pop-up description, e.g. B♭.
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture, every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul. —Goethe.
'Tis thine to merit, mine to record. —Homer.