Introduction

Biography

Daniel was the son of Cap­tain Da­ni­el Read and Ma­ry White, and hus­band of Je­ru­sha Sher­man.

Little is known of his ear­ly life, but he was com­pos­ing by age 17, and worked as a comb mak­er.

He moved to New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut, in 1782, where he man­ag­ed a ge­ne­ral store and gave sing­ing les­sons. He wrote most of his mu­sic in the 1780’s and 1790’s.

Works

• The Am­eri­can Sing­ing Book (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1785)
• American Mu­sic­al Ma­ga­zine (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1786–87), the first mu­sic pe­ri­od­ic­al in Am­eri­ca
• The Child’s In­struct­or in Vo­cal Mu­sic, around 1790
• An In­tro­duct­ion to Psal­mo­dy (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1790)
• The Co­lum­bi­an Har­mo­nist (New Ha­ven, Con­nec­ti­cut: 1793–95)
• The New Ha­ven Col­lect­ion, 1818