In celebration of George Washington’s 280th birthday today here is a look at a notable early American piece he inspired. Washington’s March was composed by Philip Pfiel for the first president’s 1789 journey from Philadelphia to the then-capitol of New York and was performed for him en route at Trenton, New Jersey. That year it became the first patriotic sheet music to be published in the United States and by the turn of the century is was available under the imprint of at least eight early publishers. Nine years after Pfiel composed the march Joseph Hopkinson supplied it with new verses and changed its title to Hail Columbia, in doing so creating the first patriotic song with both words and music of American origin.
[From the Lester S. Levy Collection at Johns Hopkins University]
WTF DID THEY DO WITH MY BASS CLEF?!
Music at the birth of a country. Pretty cool