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===Early classical music=== [[File:Amy Beach.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Amy Beach]] in 1908. First American woman to compose a symphony.]] During the colonial era, there were two distinct fields of what is now considered classical music. One was associated with amateur composers and pedagogues, whose style was originally drawn from simple [[hymn]]s and gained sophistication over time. The other colonial tradition was that of the mid-Atlantic cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, which produced a number of prominent composers who worked almost entirely within the European model; these composers were mostly English in origin, and worked specifically in the style of prominent English composers of the day.<ref>Struble, p. 4β5.</ref> [[Classical music]] was brought to the United States during the colonial era. Many American composers of this period worked exclusively with European models, while others, such as [[Supply Belcher]] and [[Justin Morgan]], also known as the ''First New England School'', developed a style almost entirely independent of European models.<ref>Struble, p. 2.</ref> Among the country's earliest composers was [[William Billings]] who, born in Boston, composed patriotic hymns in the 1770s;<ref name="Eggart2007">{{cite book|first=Elise|last=Eggart|title=Let's Go USA 24th Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMGOgKLHbz8C&pg=PA68|date=2007|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-0-312-37445-7|page=68}}</ref> he was also influential "as the founder of the American church choir, as the first musician to use a [[pitch pipe]], and as the first to introduce a [[Cello|violoncello]] into church service".<ref>Ewen, p. 7.</ref> Many of these composers were amateur singers who developed new forms of sacred music suitable for performance by amateurs, and often using harmonic methods which would have been considered bizarre by contemporary European standards.<ref>Crawford, p. 17.</ref> These composers' styles were untouched by "the influence of their sophisticated European contemporaries", using modal or pentatonic scales or melodies and eschewing the European rules of harmony.<ref>Ferris, p. 66.</ref> [[File:Charles_Ives_grad_photo.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Charles Ives]]'s blend of distinctly American elements with avant-garde techniques made him a key figure in the history of American classical music.]] In the early 19th century, America produced diverse composers such as [[Anthony Heinrich]], who composed in an idiosyncratic, intentionally American style and was the first American composer to write for a symphony orchestra. Many other composers, most famously [[William Henry Fry]] and [[George Frederick Bristow]], supported the idea of an American classical style, though their works were very European in orientation. It was [[John Knowles Paine]], however, who became the first American composer to be accepted in Europe. Paine's example inspired the composers of the ''Second New England School'', which included such figures as [[Amy Beach]], [[Edward MacDowell]], and [[Horatio Parker]].<ref>Struble, p. 28β39.</ref> [[Louis Moreau Gottschalk]] is perhaps the best-remembered American composer of the 19th century, said by music historian Richard Crawford to be known for "bringing indigenous or folk, themes and rhythms into music for the concert hall". Gottschalk's music reflected the cultural mix of his home city, New Orleans, Louisiana, which was home to a variety of Latin, Caribbean, African American, Cajun, and Creole music. He was well acknowledged as a talented pianist in his lifetime, and was also a known composer who remains admired though little performed.<ref>Crawford, p. 331β350.</ref>
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