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Justin Morgan Essay

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In 1775 America was on the brink of revolution. The American people were tired of their British overlords. The revolution that was about to take place would cause many changes to the average persons way of life. Would British pounds still be legal tender? Would land contracts still be valid? Eventually life would settle back down, but this generation of Americans would forever be special. One the men living and changing during this time was Justin Morgan. Morgan was not a minuteman or a revolutionary. He was a composer, teacher, horse breeder, yeoman, and father. He was truly a Renaissance man of early America. Justin Morgan is one of the most overlooked early American composers. Rarely is extensive work done on his life. He does not …show more content…

Stickney was born in Stoughton in 1744 and went to one of the schools held by Billings (Bandel, 100). Stickney followed a Scottish practice of music, which one can see in the introduction of his book, “Singing is an act of religious worship; while persons are learning the art, indeed, they can scarce be considered in a devout exercise. If, therefore, they choose to sing in the words of a psalm, it is most proper to choose those that are not particularly devotional.”(Bandel, 101) This is a practice that Morgan carried with him for the rest of his life. Stickney played a role in the musical controversy happening during Morgan’s adult life in West Springfield. Learning song by rote was the general style at the time but there was a large movement sweeping across churches of the northeast that would affect Morgan to shift singing to rule, reading notes or solfeggio on the page. People who learned by rote usually added embellishments to the hymns sung in church. With everyone in the congregation adding their own style the piece could become ugly. However, when the idea of learning songs by rule came up many in church felt that their individuality, the way they had learned to sing was being repressed. Morgan was put on a committee to try to solve this division. Here Morgan used his skills to slowly sway the church to sing by

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