Music of the United States of America

Music of the United States of America (MUSA) comprises a forty-volume series of scholarly editions of musical works of exceptional artistic quality and historical significance. This series is designed to reflect the richness and diversity of our nation’s heritage and is for use by scholars, performers, students, and the general public.

MUSA is devoted to presenting the legacy of American music encompassing the wide array of American musical styles, including jazz, psalmody, popular song, opera, twentieth-century chamber music, art song, Native American ceremony, experimental music, film music, and Broadway shows. An essential focus of MUSA is to expand the art of critical editing by embracing genres and styles not traditionally covered by the discipline, such as music created by women and minorities, and musicians historically overlooked in academic research. Each MUSA volume includes a substantial peer-reviewed explanatory essay, elegant musical notation, and a detailed editorial apparatus. By integrating musical notation and scholarly interpretation together in each volume, MUSA seeks to contextualize the sounds of American music within the broader cultural landscape of the nation.

Since its establishment in 1993, MUSA has published thirty-three editions (including five multi-volume sets) and twenty-two sets of associated performance parts. These editions are accessible internationally for both study and performance, making MUSA unique as the only publication series of American music that combines extensive scholarly writing with complete musical notation.

MUSA operates under the auspices of the American Musicological Society (AMS), the preeminent organization in the United States devoted to musical scholarship. Its editorial board is the Committee on the Publication of American Music (COPAM). Each MUSA edition undergoes exhaustive research by expert Volume Editors and is typically newly engraved by the award-winning music publisher A-R Editions. The Society for American Music (SAM) contributes financially to MUSA and is represented in COPAM. MUSA is grateful for the support provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted by the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.