MUSA's Early Years: The Life and Times of a National Editing Project

By Richard Crawford

Music of the United States of America (MUSA) signals the coming-of-age of American studies within the field of musicology. That the American Musicological Society has undertaken a project of this kind, and that the National Endowment for the Humanities has funded it, testify that our nation's musical traditions, long overlooked or downplayed in the academy, are now recognized as worthy of serious research and study. The humanities' quickening interest in race, class, and gender has done much to promote American musical studies. And the cultural power of American popular music and its offshoots, both in and outside the United States, has claimed a growing share of scholarly attention from various fields. Like other areas into which musical scholars are being drawn, American music is proving itself a challenging, rewarding field for study.

These words lead off the grant proposal, addressed by the American Musicological Society to the National Endowment for the Humanities, that has led to funding for a national series of scholarly editions. For some readers, the "coming-of-age" motif will be a reminder that American music, now familiar scholarly territory, was not always so. For others, the notion that its significance was ever doubted may seem quaint. Such perspectives aside, however, MUSA has now been publishing editions for more than a decade.