“Nature Must Inspire the Thought”

Sacred Music in the European Colonies

America has for more than four centuries been tied economically, politically, and culturally to the Old World, forming a vast transatlantic arena in which the drama of western expansion has been played out. In the three European empires that dominated the settlement of North America—Spain, France, and England—both commerce and religion played key roles. But religion figured differently in each of those empires, and consequently the music that served religion differed among them as well. Our study of America’s music thus begins by considering the sacred music that two of those empires, the Spanish and British, brought to the New World and how that music began to change in a new cultural setting.