This seems like the forum for this, though I ask the mods to move it as deemed fit.
I teach in an elementary school, and a second grader (an exceptional second grader) asked me if Thomas Jefferson and John Adams listened to Bach or Beethoven.
We discussed it a bit (the kid knows the birthdates of all of these people), talked about Ben Franklin and his travels in France, and we think it is possible there could be a bit of Bach played at the cotillion or in the salon after dinner.
After a bit of searching, including using the far-out new kartoo.com, we came up with no firm evidence. So, I leave it to you, the defenders of knowledge, to help out a 7 year old.
By the way, I’m confident if I got this kid signed up here, he could post factual, amusing, and illuminating posts with the best of them. But I won’t.
Thomas Jefferson played the violin, and loved music. He listened to chamber music, as this would have been most popular in his social circle. Bach and Mozart were well known to musicians of this era, Beethoven was still getting started.
Ben Franklin was musically talented also, and actually invented a musical instrument called the armonica.
George Washington wasn’t a musician, but was well known as a great dancer.
Further down the socioeconomic scale, less prosperous people sang and played folk tunes, ballads, and hymns. Hundreds of versions of the ballad “Barbara Ellen” have been found in Virginia alone. Drinking songs were sung in taverns.
Slaves sang hymns and spirituals.
All of these influences can be found in American popular and art music today.
