A collection of the most approved pieces of music from various authors: transcribed while member of Harvard University, from July 1789 to July 1793

John Pierce kept this journal while he was a student at Harvard College. It consists of manuscript musical scores with annotations indicating the occasions at which the music was performed. These occasions included commencements, public exhibitions and Dudleian lectures. A note indicates that one anthem was prepared by Samuel Holyoke at Pierce's request, to be performed at Pierce's class commencement exercises, held on July 13, 1793. Several annotations were made in May 1794, the year following Pierce's graduation. There is a table of contents on the last page.

Gift of John B. Fox, Jr. on May 17, 1991.

The Archives also holds a pitch pipe formerly belonging to Pierce (call number HUO 57.793.1) that was donated at the same time as this volume.

A facsimile of this manuscript was published in 1998 and is available at the Loeb Music Library, Harvard University.

There are other manuscript materials created by John Pierce in the collections of the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at the Harvard Divinity School.

John Pierce was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts and received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1793. He was ordained as pastor of the First Church in Brookline, Massachusetts on March 15, 1797. In 1798, he married Abigail Lovel, who died in 1800. In 1802, he married Lucy Tappan, and he and Lucy were married for 47 years and had 10 children. Pierce was the sole pastor of the First Church in Brookline for 50 years. He was also a member of the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers, the Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society, the Boston Association, and was secretary to the Board of Overseers of Harvard College.