Charlotte Le Pelletier’s Journal of Musick (1810): A New Look at French Culture in Early America

When Charlotte Le Pelletier arrived in the US, women composers were rare, and for a woman to compose, arrange, and publish her own works, as well as those of others, was virtually unheard of. And yet Le Pelletier's ambitious Journal of Musick, published in Baltimore in 1810, managed to reach out to an American public thirsty for music to be played not only in the concert hall, but on the family square piano at home--music for students, for amateurs, and for all who knew only live music before the age of radio and modern recording technology. Most of these selections were reprints of English publications, and virtually all were composed or transcribed by male musicians. Through her French background and American contacts, Le Pelletier brought not only a fresh repertoire to the American cultural scene, but a vital new perspective of the historic role that women played in early American culture. Here, Kirk discusses the contents of Journal of Musick and how it relates to American culture of the time.