Lytton N. McDonnell

A cultural history of the relationship between music and trance in America, from the early colonial era to the Jazz Age.Counterpoints of Ecstasy provides an engaging exploration of the relationship between music and self-transcendent experiences in America from the 1620s to the 1920s. It investigates how diverse Americans—from Puritan settlers to vaudeville entertainers—used music to find meaning in ecstasy, trance,...