[MUSIC - NATIVE AMERICAN]
COMMUCK, THOMAS. Indian Melodies. New York: Lane & Tippett, 1845. Publisher's calf-backed boards, in a modern half morocco folding box and chemise. 6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm); 116 pp. Spine a bit rubbed, boards toned, occasional minor spotting etc. but overall a clean copy.
A very scarce book which represents the first published music by an American Indian (Commuck was Narragansett), "Harmonized by Thomas Hastings, Esq." Hastings was the composer, among other things, of the hymn Rock of Ages. Published in New York for the Methodist Episcopal Church, the melodies are adaptations of Methodist hymns and the songs even share the same numbering. Commuck titled each song in tribute to extinct tribes, tribes facing extinction, his acquaintances and famous places, chiefs and women of Indian lore. Representative titles are Seneca, Mississippi and Pocahontas. There are two appendices: one alphabetical, the other metrical.