David Nicholls is Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. He is the author of American Experimental Music, 1890–1940 (Cambridge University Press, 1990) and contributing editor of The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium (1997), and The Cambridge Companion to John Cage (2002). He is also editor of the journal American Music.

• Notes on contributors; Editor's preface; Part I: 1. American Indian musics, past and present Victoria Lindsay Levine; 2. Music in America: an overview (part 1) William Brooks; 3. Secular music to 1800 Kate Van Winkle Keller with John Koegel; 4. Sacred music to 1800 Nym Cooke; 5. African-American music to 1900 Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje; 6. Immigrant, folk and regional musics in the nineteenth century Michael Broyles; 7. Nineteenth-century popular music Dale Cockrell; 8. Art music from 1800 to 1860 Katherine K. Preston; 9. Art music from 1860 to 1920 Michael Broyles; Part II: 10. Music in America: an overview (part 2) William Brooks; 11. Immigrant, folk and regional musics in the twentieth century Philip V. Bohlman; 12. Popular song and popular music on stage and film Stephen Banfield; 13. The rock and roll era Robert Walser; 14. Ragtime and early jazz Jeffrey Magee; 15. Jazz from 1930 to 1960 David Joyner; 16. Jazz since 1960 Ronald Radano; 17. Tonal traditions in art music from 1920 to 1960 Larry Starr; 18. Serialism and complexity Stephen Peles; 19. Avant-garde and experimental music David Nicholls; 20. Tonal traditions in art music since 1960 Jonathan W. Bernard; Bibliography and references; Index.

'Unlike European musical history, the terra incognita of American music for non-specialists is the pre-modern era. The first half of The Cambridge History of American Music covers all aspects of this period and is worth the price of the whole.' The Times Literary Supplement