The Music of James Hewitt: A Supplement to the Sonneck-Upton and Wolfe Bibliographies

The musical output of composers active in the concert and theater life life of the United States from the Colonial period through 1825 is generally quite thoroughly tallied and described by the Sonneck-Upton and Wolfe Bibliographies of secular American music. Occasionally, however, some compositions were overlooked, being either in smaller libraries or concealed within large bound volumes of sheet music. Or perhaps a composer living within this period was also active in another country or exceeded the 1825 cut-off date of the Wolfe Bibliography during his later years. Also, any sacred works would not be found in these reference works, as they both catalog only secular compositions. It is in instances such as these that new material may be presented to supplement these monumental bibliographies. James Hewitt (1770-1827) was an important force in shaping the musical culture of New York and Boston during the early nineteenth century. He was a composer, publisher, performer, seller, importer, teacher, and orchestra leader in those cities and other American localities during the years 1792-1825. He was also active in London as a composer and performer for at least two years before coming to America. Although the last year and a half of his life was largely unproductive due to a facial cancer, a few of his works were published after his death by his son and other music publishers in New York and Boston. The following checklist contains works by Hewitt which, for one reason or another, have appeared in neither the Sonneck-Upton nor the Wolfe Bibliographies. The compositions are listed in a style similar to that of the two above-mentioned bibliographies and the library abbreviations used follow the form of the Union List of Serials. All of the known locations for each work are given, since with the exception of three works listed in the British Union-Catalog of Early Music, this article is presumably the only source where this information may be found. The list is divided into vocal and instrumental works and is arranged alphabetically by title within each division. A brief commentary follows each item on the list.