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.
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Wiley L. Housewright is Professor Emeritus of Music at Florida
State University.