250 Years of American Musical Heritage

If America’s up-and-coming generation doesn’t know the history of American music, then we’re worse off as a country.

Charles Holbrook | June 14, 2026

This is the year for paying tribute to and celebrating the 250th birthday of America’s grand experiment in constitutional governance based on liberty, freedom, the rule of law, and individual rights.  We honor the writers of our founding documents, as well we should, but we shouldn’t neglect our “musical founding fathers” — the unsung heroes and musical giants, composers, conductors, performers, and teachers, who gave us an incredible legacy, marching in lockstep with our historical development and evolution as a nation with musical accompaniment reflected in America’s milestones of accomplishments, celebrations, trials, and challenges.

At a time when orchestras and opera companies are running out of money, when musical theater production is reserved for billionaires, when American jazz musicians are more at home abroad, the future of American music is at stake.  The question becomes, will America’s musical heritage fade into oblivion?

Our musical legacy is much more than just patriotic songs.  A generation of amiable musical illiterates is ill equipped to make judgments about the survival of our musical institutions.  Students cannot name their own senators, find another country on a map, or explain the reasons for the Declaration of Independence.  Just as ignorance of our nation’s past makes it impossible to exercise sound judgment in the present, ignorance of our musical past makes it equally impossible for institutions to survive, although they represent the threads of America’s musical quilt.

Every Independence Day, we hear patriotic songs, but few know the story of such memorable music.

The term “Yankee Doodle” came from Dutch, meaning “Johnny Fool,” and was meant as an insult, but adopted by America’s rebellious colonists as their own.  Years later, President Ulysses S. Grant said he only knew two tunes: One was........

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