Donald Scarinci asks:

>I've be reading books about American Colonial history and I was wondering
>what music would have been perefered in the court of George III.  Does
>anyone know the music that George Washington and Ben Franklin may have
>liked? I'm curious about this if there are any musical historians in the
>group.

I'm not a music historian.  I have no idea what music, if any, Washington
liked.  In fact, I've never heard of Washington going out of his way to
listen to a piece of music or that he sang or played an instrument.

Franklin, on the other hand, loved music.  I've read that he invented the
glass harmonica - an instrument that produced tones much in the way that
rubbing a moistened finger around the rim of a crystal glass will emit
a bell-like hum.  He also composed a string quartet - apparently for
open strings.  Although I haven't seen the score, I've heard it (the
classic American String Quartet volume from Vox) and find it typical of
Federal-period music:  light, inconsequential.  While ambassador to France,
he enjoyed a great deal of music at the French court.  He also, as a
Phildelphian, traveled to the Moravian settlements of Pennsylvania -
probably the most sophisticated music-making in English-speaking America -
and raved about the music and the performances he heard there.  This would
have been Handelian and Haydnesque stuff, way beyond the usual run of
suites, spinet songs, and dances that made up most colonial and early
federal urban musical fare.

Steve Schwartz