AFA Staff
AFA Journal staff reviews movies, books and other resources
April 2012 – Our music in our history
Do you like to whistle while you work? Or hum while you hunt and peck on the computer? Really, what I’m asking is: Are you the kind of person who sings in the car, only to embarrass yourself when you realize the people in the car next to you have been entertaining themselves with your concert?
This is not a new phenomenon. Many of us have little musicals running in our heads throughout the day. They usually consist of a song that we have no control over, something that originated from a TV jingle, a series theme song – or a purple dinosaur. I am sure that people have done that throughout time.
The fact is that all of history seems to have a sound track of sorts. If you follow the music, you can follow the history. Exploring America’s Musical Heritage is produced by American Family Media in association with Silver Age Music. The series takes you on a journey through America’s musical history. From Puritans and native Americans, through the founders and pioneers, to the immigrants of Ellis Island and today’s newcomers, Americans have relied on music and other arts to express the essence of daily life.
In Exploring America’s Musical Heritage, Dr. Carol Reynolds, musicologist, and 38 other historians and artists take you on location to the places where music and art have shaped the look and feel of various eras in American history.
Reynolds is rapidly becoming a mainstay of the homeschool and classical education world. After 21 years as a music history professor, she authored the acclaimed multi-media curriculum Discovering Music: 300 Years of Interaction in Western Music, Arts, History, and Culture.
AFA’s Exploring America’s Musical Heritage includes these eight sessions, each about 30 minutes long:
Unit 1: Regionalism, Legacy and Preservation
Unit 2: Contrasting Traditions of the Puritans and Moravians (1620-1760)
Unit 3: America’s Founders and Their Arts (1700-1800)
Unit 4: Architecture, Soundscapes and New Directions (1780-1850)
Unit 5: The Arts Shaped by Conflict (1820-1865)
Unit 6: Americans on the Move (1710-1880)
Unit 7: Native America Revisited, Immigration and American Theater (1850-1920)
Unit 8: Exploring the New and Preserving the Old (1900-1960)
Available at afastore.net (suggested gift of $49.95). Supplementary materials are available at www.exploringheritage.com.
Review by Paul Bass
