As with any music before the age of sound recording, what survives of pre-nineteenth-century American sacred music is that which was written down or published. This means, in the main, Anglo-American Protestant psalmody. Psalmody - the word here referring to musical settings not only of the Biblical psalms but also of hymn texts and Biblical prose – was an extraordinarily rich creative phenomenon in late-eighteenth-century America. The vast literature of this tradition and the high artistic quality of many of its compositions are substantially the reasons why a separate chapter on early American sacred music is found in the present volume.

It is important, however, to consider the tradition of Protestant psalmody within a larger context: that of music as an aspect of worship - or, more broadly stated, of sacred activity. Humans have used music in various ways to express, intensify, channel, or unblock their relationship to the divine. Music can bring a person closer to God or to the spiritual realm; it can also create and strengthen the bonds within a community of worshippers or spiritual seekers. In different ritual settings within different cultural traditions, religious music has worked in very different ways: intensifying consciousness or dissolving it; exciting the body and spirit or rendering them tranquil; reinforcing established social hierarchies or providing a temporary alternative.

Seen from these perspectives, Protestant worship music occupies a very particular place in a wide spectrum of traditions. Both German Protestantism and the mainstream of Anglo-American Protestantism have always been wary of departing from consciousness and rationality in worship. And they have rarely encouraged individual or personal religious experiences.