Category: History

Singing Together: How Sacred Harp Unites Voices Beyond Belief

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In Hole in the Stone (Summer 1995, Vol. 6, Iss. 4), singer Alix Baillie shared her unique perspective on Sacred Harp singing in an article titled Down-Home Singing Frenzies: Sacred Harp for Pagans. Though Baillie comes from a Pagan background, she found herself captivated by the raw, communal power of Sacred Harp. Her story serves as a beautiful reminder of the unwritten rule in Sacred Harp singing: “Leave your politics and religion at the door.”

Although Sacred Harp is deeply rooted in the Christian tradition, Baillie reflected on how warmly the community welcomed her, despite her different spiritual background. She emphasized how the power of the music, the open harmonies, and the shared tradition of singing together transcended any differences. While some Christian singers might have been puzzled had they known about her spiritual beliefs, Baillie discovered a space where music brought everyone together.

She described how Sacred Harp singers “live out” the love and unity that many faiths aspire to, focusing on the singing instead of theological differences. Baillie’s experience is a testament to the Sacred Harp tradition of inclusivity: while the lyrics may be overtly Christian, the power of the music transcends belief systems.

As Baillie’s story illustrates, Sacred Harp is best when it welcomes all singers with an open heart. The community thrives because we put aside differences and unite in song. You can find Alix Baillie’s name listed in the Sacred Harp “Minutes” around that time, a testament to her participation in this vibrant tradition.

–Kevin Isaac

P.S. It’s worth noting that Alix Baillie’s article was written nearly 30 years ago, and her views or perspectives may have changed since then. However, the piece offers an interesting snapshot of one enthusiastic singer’s attempt to bring her unconventional musical passion to an unconventional audience—an audience that might not otherwise have been open to reading about Christian hymnody. Baillie’s experience reflects the inclusivity and welcoming spirit that continues to be a hallmark of Sacred Harp singing, even as our community evolves.

Down-Home Singing Frenzies: Sacred Harp for Pagans

The sound whirls in the center of the room with the roar of a funnel cloud. Hundreds of voices — clear, rumbling, nasal — join in powerful harmonies, swept along over an inexorable, throbbing pulse. An outdoor ritual? No, a Sacred Harp convention. The singers seat themselves, not in a circle, but in the “hollow square,” facing each other in voice sections. They are singing from a book whose tradition has been carried on in these meetings since 1844, and which belongs to an even longer tradition reaching back to the eighteenth century. The book is The Sacred Harp, and even though the words are about Jesus, the music is, in the words of one Pagan visitor, “way too good for the Christians to have all to themselves.”

As it turns out, the Christians don’t have it all to themselves. I recently posted a query on an Internet list, asking non-Christians how they felt about singing The Sacred Harp’s texts, and asking Christians how they felt about non-Christians participating. The response from both groups was quite positive. I heard from Unitarians, Jews, agnostics, atheists, people who are a bit of everything, people who were nothing in particular. A woman in Eugene, Oregon, who identified herself as an atheist, reported that some folks up there substitute Goddess for God. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a woman who describes herself as a traditional Roman Catholic uses The Sacred Harp’s hymns in her private devotions. Many of the respondents were people who feel alienated from their Christian upbringing, but find community, spiritual satisfaction, and a connection to the past in Sacred Harp singing.

The connection to the past is very real, and is reiterated at every Sacred Harp convention. At some point, usually just before the midday dinner, one or two singers read aloud the names of singers who have died in the past year. One of the readers, usually an elder in the Sacred Harp community, gives a talk about death — that it waits for all of us, but that it is nothing to fear. Although this is all in a Christian context, the emphasis is not on platitudes like “they’re all with Jesus now,” but rather on the continuity of death and life. In one sense, the dead singers — all the dead singers, for countless generations — live on as we invoke their memory and sing the songs they loved. Stress is also laid on the fact that everyone sitting in the room will pass through the Veil someday. This is not grim, but joyous: not only will we be remembered in our turn, but we’ll be able to sing together endlessly in the biggest convention of them all on the other side.

Many of the songs in The Sacred Harp and the traditions that accompany them, go back to colonial New England. They flourished in the singing schools advocated by Rev. Thomas Symmes in the 1720s as a remedy against the sad state of rote-learned church music. Typically, a singing master would set up in a church or tavern for a week or two and hold daily classes for adults and children. He would charge a nominal fee for the lessons, and make most of his money from the sale of his particular songbook/textbook. He would teach the rudiments of music using the old four-syllable English solfege: FA, SOL, LA, MI. The students would learn the unaccompanied polyphonic music first, part by part, then put the parts together. At the end of the school, the community would have a core of good sight-singers, and the singing master would move on to the next town.

The appeal of the singing schools was not strictly musical. In strait-laced New England, the singing school provided a parentally-approved way for young people to flirt. Musicologist Irving Lowens cites a 1782 letter written by a Yale undergraduate: “I am almost sick of the World & were it not for the Hopes of going to singing-meeting tonight & indulging myself a little in some of the carnal Delights of the Flesh, such as kissing, squeezing &c &c I would willingly leave it now.” The singing school, and the periodic singing-meetings that succeeded it in some places, also provided an enjoyable way for scattered rural families to socialize. The idea of gathering from far-flung parts for a day of meeting, eating, and singing continues today in the tradition of all day singing and dinner on the grounds.

The New England singing-school phenomenon peaked in the 1770s and 1780s. The Yankee composers/singing masters all had other trades and were usually self-taught in music. Their tunes are modal, powerful, and expressive — and ignore the rules of “correct” counterpoint and harmony. Besides plain tunes, in which all the parts move together, they wrote so-called fuguing tunes. These are not formal fugues, but have sections where the voices enter separately, in melodic imitation. William Billings, in the preface to his Continental Harmony, gives the best description yet of a fuguing tune: “Now the solemn bass demands [the listener’s] attention, now the manly tenor, now the lofty counter, now the volatile treble, now here, now there, now here again. — O enchanting! O ecstatic!”

The wild harmonies and exuberant expression of the Yankee singing-school music gradually lost favor in New England. Churches acquired organs, and Lowell Mason and the “better music boys” sought to “improve” American music by replacing it with watered-down European art-music. As singing masters began to move west and south at the turn of the nineteenth century, the first tunebook in shape notes appeared, William Little and William Smith’s Easy Instructor. Earlier teachers had tried various means of representing the solfege syllables visually, but Little and Smith’s system proved the best; it is still used in The Sacred Harp. Each syllable has a unique shape:

Without worrying about keys, a singer can learn to sight-read quickly.

This effective new tool was taken up in the South. In 1815, Ananias Davisson published his Kentucky Harmony in the Shenandoah Valley. This book marked a turning-point in singing-school music: Davisson put some of the most popular songs from round-note Yankee books into four-shape notation, and added new compositions in a Southern-folk idiom. Davisson and other Southern composers wrote new tunes in the folk idiom and adapted ballads and dance-tunes to hymn texts. Their arrangements, too, were folksy, sometimes more like the English-folk sound of the Yankees, sometimes like bluegrass. Although this vigorous unaccompanied singing was born in New England, it was nurtured and carried into the present in the South.

B.F. White and E.J. King’s Sacred Harp, first published in 1844, was one of the last four-shape tunebooks; by the 1850s the tide had turned to seven-syllable solfege (the modern DO RE MI) with seven shapes. Most tunebook publishers changed with the times; along with the new notation came sweeter harmonies and gospel-music influences. The Sacred Harp, however, kept to its traditions of four-shape notation, raw open-fifth harmonies, and Anglo-American tunes. Some efforts were made to update the book. B.F. White’s son edited a revision in 1909 which included several tunes reworked into “correct” harmony. The free-ranging countermelodies were brought into close harmony positions and made to function as chordal harmony parts, losing their own melodic interest. Needless to say, this book did not find much welcome in the Sacred Harp community.

The more successful revisions have kept B.F. White’s underlying principles, but added new songs in the old style with each edition. One update that still raises controversy among arch-purists is the addition, in the 1911 James Revision, of alto parts to most of the old three-part songs. Some claim this addition softens the harmony too much by filling in the thirds of the chords — but anyone who’s ever heard a good paint-peeling Southern alto can testify there’s nothing softening about the alto part.

The current (1991) revision of The Sacred Harp includes works from the earliest Yankee singing masters, works by living composers, and pieces from every generation in between. Convention customs, too, go back to the colonial singing schools. At modern Sacred Harp singings, the group of singers is called the class; each leader in turn stands in the center of the hollow square to lead a lesson. The procedure is completely democratic: anyone at the singing can lead any song, provided it hasn’t already been sung, or used, that day. The arranging committee tries to make sure that everyone who wants to lead gets a chance. As each leader gets up, s/he calls out a page number. The leader or a designated pitcher finds a workable tonic pitch (hardly ever the actual printed pitch); each section finds its starting pitch from this. Then the whole class launches into the cacophony of singing the notes — everyone sings hir own part with the solfege syllables. Finally, the leader calls out the verses s/he wants, and the whole class sings, washing the leader and each other in waves of glorious sound, beating time with their hands and tapping their feet. At midday, they feed each other, in the potluck feast modestly called dinner on the grounds (from the tradition of picnic tables set up on the grounds of tiny country churches).

The texts Sacred Harpers sing all day are about Jesus and his God, but these are not the wimpy lyrics of standard church hymnals, nor are they as exclusively Christian as might appear. The texts are filled with death; life was harsh for the people among whom the shape-note books flourished originally. The God portrayed in many songs is a raging Old Testament God; the raw power of the Divine-in-Nature and of Nature Herself is feared and celebrated. Some of the songs are gentle and comforting, but in a sincere, not sappy, way. It is this directness of expression that seems to appeal to both Christians and non-Christians. One Christian woman wrote me:

“The words are specific, strong, and even offensive to some, but that is part of their power. …The faith expressed in the Sacred Harp is a specific faith believed by a specific group of people. …Their faith had depth because it was a specific experiential faith. …maybe Sacred Harp people respect this faith because they already know that experience means more than abstract theory.”

I heard similar expressions from non-Christians trying to describe the power of Sacred Harp. For me, the power of the sound itself, the psychic force of dozens or hundreds of people singing together, the absolute acceptance of anyone who joins the hollow square — in perfect love and perfect trust — far outweigh the disagreements I have with the specific theology of the texts. Georgian Richard F. Whatley recently posted an article called “Celestial Fruits on Earthly Ground” to the Internet list, in which he remarks that the single most impressive thing about the huge Midwest Convention is the number of different religions gathered under one roof. “Sacred Harp has a way of attracting people from all the spiritual walks who are willing to put their differences on the back burner; people who expect a miracle and come prepared to let it happen.” He concludes: “Where two religious sects are gathered in His (sic) name is called a war; where 20 are gathered is called a Sacred Harp convention.”

The Crone-like lyrics and earthly harmonies made me want to tell Pagans about Sacred Harp a year ago. I’m glad I waited, though, because in that year I’ve learned that the real magic of Sacred Harp is its community — people who actually live out the unconditional love most religions merely hold up as an ideal. The Sacred Harp has Christian words, but if you visit with an open, respectful attitude, you will be welcomed as an old friend. You may even find something you can adapt!

RESOURCES

  • The Sacred Harp. 1991 Revision. Bremen, GA: 1991. Available ($13 postpaid) from Sacred Harp Publishing Co., 1010 Waddell St., Bremen, GA 30110.
  • Cobb, Buell E., Jr. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1978; paperback, 1989.
    The best introduction to Sacred Harp history and culture. This is available directly from Mr. Cobb; I have his address somewhere.
  • Davisson, Ananias. Kentucky Harmony or, A choice collection of Psalm tunes, hymns, and anthems, in three parts. Ananias Davisson, 1815.
    Facsimile edition, 1976, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minn.
  • Jackson, George Pullen. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands. N.p.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1933. Reprint, with an introduction by Don Yoder, Hatboro, PA: Folklore Associates, 1964.
    The first scholarly notice taken of shape-note music; deeper history than Cobb.
  • Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1964.
    Includes essays on New England school and the invention of shape-notes.
  • Directory and Minutes of Sacred Harp Singings.
    Published annually by the Sacred Harp Publishing Company. Lists all Denson-Revision annual conventions and some smaller singings, including:
    • Rocky Mountain Sacred Harp Convention, third Sunday of September and Saturday before, Fort Collins. Contact John Ramsey, 303-221-9589 for more info on the convention and singings in CO/WY/NM. There are monthly singings in Fort Collins, Denver; probably elsewhere as well.
Cheese Notes

Before The Sacred Harp: How 1830s Reformists Targeted Shape Note Singing

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The following article, published in Musical Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 for July 1835, was part of a journal edited by Thomas Hastings, a prominent American composer and music educator who played a central role in advocating for the reform of sacred music in the United States.

This article provides a critical overview of American sacred music, with a particular focus on early collections like Lyon’s and Billings’, which it disparages as being of low quality. It reflects the growing efforts of the musical reform movement, or “better music movement,” which sought to replace the widely embraced shape note system with European-style round notes. The reformists viewed shape notes as unsophisticated and backward, and some of their criticisms became especially harsh. This article is notable for coining the term “dunce notes,” a derogatory label for shape notes, underscoring the hostility of reformers toward the tradition. However, the essay’s harsh stance on shape notes came just nine years before the publication of The Sacred Harp in 1844, a book that would go on to solidify the shape note tradition as an enduring and beloved American musical form.

Despite the reformers’ efforts to push European musical conventions, the shape note tradition persisted and even thrived in many communities. The article’s dismissive tone toward earlier American composers and popular singing practices like shape notes reflects a broader elitist attitude of the reform movement, which often prioritized formal musical education and round note systems over the accessibility and community-focused nature of shape note singing. While the reformists may have gained influence in cities like Boston, their push to homogenize American music overlooked the deep cultural roots and lasting appeal of the shape note tradition.

In its closing, the article calls for musicians to prioritize usefulness and service to God, but its bias against shape note singing reveals the reformers’ narrow vision, one that underestimated the lasting impact and value of shape note music in American sacred song.

–Kevin Isaac

MUSICAL AUTHORS AND PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Published in Musical Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 for July 1835.

Among the singing books that have been published in this country, the earliest we recollect to have seen, was Lyon’s Collection, printed in one of the Southern States. The work was executed by a miserable engraver, and the subject matter was of a corresponding character. As early perhaps, as seventy or eighty years ago, it had some circulation.

Williams and Tansur’s well known collection, was reprinted “and sold by Daniel Bailey, at his house next door to St. Paul’s Church, Newburyport, 1771.” This contained the old parochial melodies, badly arranged. Subsequent corrections and improvements in the scores of these melodies, occasioned much dissatisfaction among a multitude of teachers, who were prone to regard every emendation, even to a “printer’s blunder,” as a felonious violation of the original; while at the same time nothing of the tunes in question, save the melodies, had the least claims to originality. Teachers are now better informed in this respect, but are ready to run into the opposite extreme of encouraging unnecessary alterations of standard tunes. This evil needs the application of a remedy.

Billings commenced his train of publications, we believe, not far from the same period above mentioned. He had some genius, but very little learning. His first publication, during the Revolutionary conflict, was ridiculous in the extreme. The theme of one of his anthems, was a mawkish parody upon a passage of the scriptures,—”And the enemy said, let us draw a line from York to Canada! Oh wonderful! Oh horrible!” &c. Some of his subsequent compositions had rather more merit. His Amherst is on the whole, a decent tune; his Brookfield has been deservedly popular; his Anthem for Easter, contains some interesting traits, and was formerly much admired. His Jordan, if indeed the melody was ever invented by him, had claims somewhat beyond mediocrity. It has lately found its way into one of the leading publications of Boston, an honor, however, of which it is not worthy.

Billings may be regarded as the father of fuging music in this country. He derived his models from some of the most insignificant publications of England. Old Milford, Thirty-fourth, and Luke Anthem, by Stevenson, and the compositions of W. Arnold, and others of a similar character, supplied him with models in abundance. The public taste was thus misled for a season, but good sense finally prevailed. Billings’ efforts as a whole, are not to be lightly spoken of. He did what he could; and who, with his opportunities, would have effected more?

Rev. Andrew Law, L.L. D., commenced his compilations not far from the same period with Billings, whom he greatly excelled in scientific qualifications. Though he felt compelled to aid in the circulation of much real trash under the name of music, which had gained the public favor, he introduced many pieces in connexion, derived from the best English works then extant, which exerted great influence in the progress of cultivation and refinement. His abundant labors in pursuance of this object, should be remembered with lasting gratitude. In his latter days, he sickened with discouragement at the public apathy, and as a last resort, took up the “lozenge characters,” threw aside the musical staff, and endeavored by thus paying court to the general indolence of singers, to arouse them to a more active and vigorous cultivation. The end in view was worthy of a better expedient. But if he here erred in judgment, as most certainly he did, his case is not a solitary one. The late Dr. G. K. Jackson, once lent his name to such an object. Even at the present time, there are some excellent men who are filling the Valley of the Mississippi, with patent notes, which are destined, we fear, to hold back the progress of musical improvement in that region, for half a century to come.

Mr. Law was a good man. His own compositions were of little note, except the single tune Archdale, which is beginning to be revived in a new harmonic dress.

Sometime after Mr. Law commenced his earlier labors, productions of an ephemeral character began greatly to multiply. Men who could pitch a tune correctly and distinguish themselves in the noble art of fuging, thought proper to turn composers and offer their wares to the public. Some of the better read, among them, had caught a glimpse of Tansur’s notable Grammar, which, illiterate as it was, held the highest place on the mount of privileges. The writer of this article, was at that time, among the many who coveted in vain the exalted favor. Of some fifty or a hundred composers, most of them too inconsiderable for special notice, we recollect the names of Benham, Bronson, Gillet, Swan, Shumway, French, Morgan, Little, and Smith. Passing over the first five of this list, we may mention French the sixth, as remarkable for his theory of concords. He said there could be no discords in heaven, ergo there ought to be none on earth. So he made up a collection of mangled specimens of music, in illustration of his favorite principle.

Morgan is a name of more notoriety. His Huntington and Montgomery were universal favorites among the lovers of the fuguing style. His Judgment Anthem was quite famous. Had he really intended it as a burlesque, he could scarcely have invented a worse thing. But public taste was then extensively perverted. The man, as we well recollect, was in good standing when he wrote the piece, and he doubtless did his best to produce good music. The words were awfully solemn, and this circumstance gave for a while, great celebrity to the tune.

Little and Smith, we regret to say, are names which must stand in musical history, closely connected with wholesale quantities of patented “dunce notes.” Probably no other book in the country had ever such an amount of purchasers as theirs; or did so much, in the day of it, to hinder the progress of taste. This, however, was to be attributed, chiefly to the enterprise of money making publishers. The compilers, we believe, were never the richer for their undertaking. Had there been no such practice as literally forcing books into the market, the work last mentioned, we are bold to say, would have never come into general notice. And yet the fact, that some fifty thousand copies of any book, can, within a few years, in this manner, be palmed upon the public, is triumphantly quoted, as evidence of its great utility. What if the same inference were to be drawn in reference to the sales of the Life of Stephen Burroughs, and of Paine’s Age of Reason! We mean not the slightest reflection upon the character of individuals. There is a dearth of correct information. Let the public be better informed, and more can be trusted to the discrimination of purchasers.

For a long while after the period of the revolution, there was a general disposition to dispense, as far as possible, with foreign fabrics and inventions. This was very consonant with national pride and the love of independence in an infant republic. It had its advantages and its disadvantages. Among the latter are to be reckoned some of the musical incidents above enumerated. The general disposition to which we have alluded, was strongly felt by the untutored minstrels and compilers of sacred song. It grew at one period, almost to a mania which threatened the total vitiation of taste; and but for such men as Mr. Law and his successors, it is difficult to see how such a crisis would have been prevented. But the leaven of a better taste, slow and almost imperceptible in its operations, was continually at work till its influence had pervaded the general mass of performers. As the demand for good music increased, American authors and compilers began to improve the character of their publications.

Reed’s compositions manifested some traits of genius. His Stafford was comparatively of a chaste and durable character. His Windham is yet in favor, and has been on the whole a very useful tune. Though he did not wholly discard the fuguing style, he gave it some check, and indulged himself in it, with moderation. He was a worthy man, and for aught we can tell, may be still living, in anticipation of a holier minstrelsy in the regions above.

Bull’s collection, published at Hartford, Connecticut, contained many melodies of a chaster character, with simple harmony, not very scientifically arranged. But it was a great improvement upon the fuguing style and led the way for better things. Report says, that the author was remarkable for having conquered the difficulties of a bad voice and imperfect ear. The teacher who had repeatedly pronounced him incorrigible, became at length his docile pupil. This, when the old notion of instinctive qualifications prevailed, was thought to be a strange thing, an event almost equal to a Popish miracle. The man, who thus succeeded in the face of such a discouraging theory, was entitled to much credit for his perseverance.

The names of Gram, Holyoke, Holden, Mann, and Kimball might have been sooner mentioned. The first three of this number, living at Boston, Salem, and Charlestown, published in 1795, a small quarto of about one hundred pages, entitled the Massachusetts Compiler. Full one third of the work was devoted to musical theory, in the presentation of which, there was more of technicality than of sound science or rational simplicity. This portion of the work was ill-digested: but the musical selections were highly creditable. Gram was a well bred organist, of the German school. During the American revolution, or soon afterwards, he published in the Worcester collection, a patriotic anthem “Bind Kings with chains.”

Holyoke, a man also of liberal education, published a large quarto collection, of 489 pages, embracing Watts’ Psalms and Hymns, each set to a special piece of music in score. A large quantity of the music was original, which had scientific merit, but nothing more. It is presumptuous for any musician of any age to draw so largely upon his own resources, for such an object, in such a limited space of time. The unwieldy Repository sunk by its own weight into speedy oblivion.

Holden also published a separate collection which had little merit compared with the Compiler. His compositions partook of the light phraseology of the day, but were less illiterate than the generality of contemporaneous specimens.

Mann, who, in his latter days resided in Northampton, published considerable music, which was somewhat above mediocrity; and gained the reputation of a worthy, skilful teacher. His compositions would about rank with Holden’s.

Kimball, so far as we can learn, never published a book of psalmody: but the few pieces he wrote manifested some genius and cultivation. He was a musician of the secular school, and his compositions are somewhat in a corresponding style.

Tukey, an organist of Boston, was author of a full anthem, and perhaps of nothing more that was published. The Ninety-seventh Psalm tune, which bears his name, is an extract from his anthem, dressed up by other hands.

Gardiner some forty or fifty years ago, was distinguished as a violinist of “astonishing powers.” He had been a pupil of Giardini, and left England for this country, probably on account of some real or alleged misdemeanor. Many anecdotes are related of him as he went about incog to astonish the natives; but he did little for the cause of sacred music, except as an accompanist, and a theoretical instructor.

Chandler, an American, who spent his last days in Catskill, New-York, deserves a passing notice. He left a quantity of unpublished music which evinces industry and cultivation. A complete musical education would have done wonders for him.

But to return to Hartford: Olmsted’s Musical Olio, succeeded to Bull’s Collection, and passed through two editions. He had a better taste than his predecessor, and was by no means destitute of genius. Had his opportunities been greater, he might have been the Handel of America.

The Olio was succeeded by Robert’s collection, which passed through one edition, and gave place to the American Psalmody, by Messrs. Dutton and Ives which is now in circulation.

Benjamin’s Collection might have been sooner mentioned. It was an earlier work, issued but a little time previous to the death of its compiler, who is said to have fallen a victim to the undue exercise of his vocal powers. His collection was made from the best English books of that period; and he published the pieces we believe, without the slightest alteration, which was a matter of some importance at a time when few men were good judges of music.

Boston, for a long period, held its course steadily onward in the march of improvement, unaffected by the surrounding changes; and that city is still more remarkable than any other place in the Union, for its success in musical cultivation. Its example has had great influence upon other portions of the country; never greater perhaps than at the present moment. The worthy musicians of that city therefore are placed in circumstances of trying responsibility. What they do well (and there is much of it) must ultimately stand; and what they do amiss, though it be never so little, will find a multitude of luckless imitators. This is indeed, more or less true, of all distinguished musicians of the present day, who labor in the sacred department; and it becomes them to look well to the character of their influence. A musical reform has for several years past been in progress; and though its march has been slow and its influence not very widely extended, it seems destined to ultimate success; and very possibly, the foundations of a genuine national taste, may very soon be laid.

Within the last twenty-five years there has been a gradual improvement in the character of our musical publications. The various editions of the Worcester Collection, followed by those of the Village Harmony, and the Songs of the Temple, opened the way for the “Handel and Haydn Society” collection of psalmody, published by Mr. Lowell Mason, of Boston; who also issues among other useful works, Lyra Sacra, the Choir, and the Boston Academy’s Collection; which last work is of recent date and destined no doubt to have an extensive circulation.

The works of Zeuner, of a recent date in that city, though less extensively known, are certainly not destitute of merit. Of these and many others, we may chance to speak on future occasions, should we find sufficient leisure for a thorough perusal of their contents.

We shall not include, our own publications in this brief sketch. Some of them have been long before the public and others are of a recent date. Many other collections now in use, have more or less merit, but as our list of titles is imperfect, and as we are unwilling to appear invidious, we shall omit the enumeration, at the present time. Among works of a miscellaneous and scientific character, it may suffice our purpose to name a few of the most prominent. Kollman’s Essay on Harmony, and Callcott’s Musical Grammar, both European works republished in this country, the latter of which has passed to a second edition: Burroughs’ Musical Primer, an important little work on thorough base reprinted at Boston: Ives and Mason’s manuals of elementary instruction: dissertation on musical taste: oratorios of the Messiah and the Creation, republished: Old Colony Collection of Anthems, Choruses &c.: Handel and Haydn Collection, of oratorial extracts. Collections similar to the latter, though less in size, have occasionally been issued in this city; and as to catalogues of secular music, one might as well attempt to count the leaves of the forest which after flourishing for a season are withered by the Autumnal frost and scattered by the winds of heaven.

History

Four Book Reviews from 1969

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The following was published in The Choral Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1 (JULY-AUGUST 1969), p. 8.

Book Review . . .

CHARLES G. BOODY
1248 St. Clair Ave., Apt. 9
St. Paul, Minnesota 55105

WHITE SPIRITUALS IN THE SOUTHERN UPLANDS by George Pullen Jackson. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965 (Original Publication 1933). Paperback, $2.50.

SPIRITUAL FOLKSONGS OF EARLY AMERICA by George Pullen Jackson. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1964 (Original Publication 1937). Paperback, $2.00.

THE SOUTHERN HARMONY by William Walker. Edited by Glenn C. Wilcox. Los Angeles: Pro Musicamer icana, 1966 (Reprint of 1854 edition). $6.00.

THE SACRED HARP by B. F. White and E. J. King. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1968 (Reprint of 3rd edition of 1859). $6.50.

One of the choral reviewers for this journal recently wrote that in a new edition of “Early American” choral music several of the works were arranged, and the user would do well to “Check this out”. That reviewer was right. These pieces were largely the melodies of works by early American composers unidiomatically arranged by the editor. This approach to any music is disgusting! Even if all of the readers do not feel this way about such arrangement, they are certain to be curious about the original work, and about the circumstances which surrounded its inception. We are, after all, educating our choirs by our selection of and comments about the music — whether or not that may be our main purpose. The four books examined here discuss or present facsimile reprints of part of our repertory of “early American” choral music, the shape note tune books. The idea of using shaped note heads to represent the syllables first of the old “fa so la fa so la mi” system and later for the more common “do re me . . .” system is entirely an American development. It enjoyed a great vogue at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries as an adjunct of the singing school movement. The shape notes were ridiculed and driven out of common usage by the proponents of “European” music who opposed both the musical style of many American compositions and the idea of shaped notation which they termed “buckwheat notes”.

White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands is subtitled “The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and ‘Buckwheat Notes’ “. This extensive study discusses the history of shape notation and its use, the common characteristics of the “Fasola Folk” (as the users of four-shape notation are called), the musical and textual contents of the tune books, sources of the music and texts, changes in the contents of the later books, and differences between the Fasola Folk and the users of the more “modern” seven shape notation. It was the first source and remains a standard source of much of our knowledge of this tradition. Some of Jackson’s work has been criticized for idiosyncratic mode analysis, and for insistence on tracing all aspects of the Negro spiritual back to the “White Spirituals”. This latter point has been thoroughly repudiated since. Despite these shortcomings, the work is still a valuable source of the performance practices and history surrounding part of our first American “musical tradition”.

Spiritual Folksongs of Early America is a collection of 250 tunes and their texts categorized by Jackson. It contains a brief but thorough description of the methods used to collect and classify these tunes, and brief comments about each one. Complete tunes are printed to gether with extensive if not complete texts. This work is probably of more use to the researcher or arranger than to a person wanting to know more about the tradition to which much of this music belongs. The choral settings of the tunes are not given, but indication is made of where they may be found.

The Southern Harmony by “Singin’ Billy” Walker is one of the two most pop ular and enduring of the four-shape tune books. It was such a success that the author proudly appended A.S.H. (Author of the Southern Harmony) to his name. The editor has added a brief listing of errata and an index of first lines to the original book. The errata listing is espec ially important, for it indicates notes of the correct shape which are placed on the wrong position on the staff. The in accurate position will not bother the user of shape notes for he will read the shape, but will certainly confuse those of us who read only the staff position! As was common in these tune books, texts are often set under only one voice of the music, and even then are usually not carefully underlayed. Inevitably only the first verse is underlayed at all. In the fuguing tunes, each voice entrance is given the first word of the text phrase and the singers are left to fit in the re maining text as best they can. In short, this is not music to hand to your choir for sightreading. The texts are all sacred. The music can be classified as anthems, psalms and fuguing tunes from the New England singing school masters, and what Jackson calls “White Spirituals”, the religious music of the revival meet ings and southern protestant churches of that time. The settings are “theorists’ nightmares” in three or four parts, abounding in parallel fifths and octaves, empty fifths at cadences, unresolved dis cords, and rather strange harmonies and progressions. Melodies are often in the tenor line. The settings are quite repre sentative of the American tradition against which Lowell Mason struggled so successfully. Sung in the proper man ner (unaccompanied with men and wo men doubling all parts except the bass) they have a strange yet powerful effect. Alan Lomax described the sound of a “sing” as seventy jackasses braying to gether, but this need not be the case if the performers do not adopt the clenched throat approach to singing affected by most participants in these sings.

The Sacred Harp is the second facsimile edition of this music. Like The Southern Harmony it is an extremely popular and enduring collection. Its musical contents are similar in all respects to that of The Southern Harmony. In addition to the index of first lines, the editors have graciously added a reprint of Jackson’s little book The Story of the Sacred Harp to this edition. A “post script” to this book carries forward the story of this amazing tradition to 1967, and lists 370 singings totalling 403 days as scheduled to take place in 1967. The tradition continues on, though even those who had studied it carefully felt it was destined to die. Unfortunately this reprint does not contain a listing of errata and so must be used with care. No choir director would want to perform only this music, but none should overlook it as a source for an occasional piece, and as an historically important part of our first truly “American” choral music. The reviewer has found the settings of Wondrous Love and The Babe of Bethlehem useful in both church and educational situations. Until some publisher is willing to make available responsible editions of selected works from this repertoire, these facsimile editions will be our only readily available source of this music. After the choral editions become available these reprints will re main useful as a source of further works and a means of “checking” the published edition. We must thank these publishers for making them available at such a reasonable

History

“Social Harp” story from 1974, well illustrated…

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I stumbled across a story about the then new facsimile edition of The Social Harp that was published in the Atlanta Journal on March 1st, 1974. I thought it was so nicely illustrated I would transcribe and post the article and corresponding photos.

Songbook ‘Sings’

by BILLIE CHENEY SPEED
Atlanta Journal Religion Editor

Staff Photos by Bill Mahan

Assembled in the traditional hollow square and using the “Social Harp” songbook more than 30 singers performed the vocal music of America’s oldest days.

“Their music has both the rugged quality of the American frontier and the haunting beauty of British folk melodies” said John F. Garst who was among those who gathered for the second annual singing in the Memorial Hall ballroom of the University of Georgia in Athens.

The shaped notes with which the music is printed in “The Social Harp” and “The Sacred Harp” and other books were invented in 1800 by New Englanders according to Garst. The note heads in the music books are in shapes of squares triangles diamonds and ovals and they match the names of the notes “fa sol la ” serving as aids to sight reading.

Traditionally each piece is sung through once using the notes rather than the words and so from this practice the term “fasola singing” is derived.

Last year’s singing at the university was held in celebration of the republication of John Gordon McCurry’s “The Social Harp” by the University of Georgia Press.

Garst a chemistry professor at the University of Georgia became interested in sacred harp singing when he came to Georgia from California ten years ago. He was instrumental in getting the book originally published in 1855 reprinted.

“The Social Harp” is a singing textbook.

Garst said that singing schools in the 18th century were a weapon of war against the slow embellished congregational singing style that had developed in the colonies by 1700.

Until 1800 the singing school tradition flowered and flourished and then fashion changed and much of the populace rejected the native American music of many of the singing school manuals in favor of European music of the day said Garst.

But the singing schools lived on in rural areas and school texts compiled by the Georgia and South Carolina singing masters include “The Southern Harmony” (1844), “The Social Harp” (1855), “The Christian Harmony (1866), “The Sacred Harp” (1844), “The Hesperian Harp” (1846), and “The Olive Leaf” (1878).

McCurry, who authored “The Social Harp,” was a farmer and singing master from Hart County Ga, and was founding father of Bio Baptist Church, which is located between Hartwell and Bowman.

His book currently available in a new edition was edited by Garst and by Daniel W Patterson.

At this year’s singing at the university a group of traditional Sacred Harp singers from South and West Georgia participated.

They usually sing from “The Sacred Harp,” another’ Georgia book which has been in use continuously since 1844.

The present publisher of “The Original Sacred Harp” (Denson revision) is the Sacred Harp Publishing Co at Bremen.

Numerous singings from this book are held throughout Georgia including the Georgia State Sacred Harp Singing which is always held “the fourth Sunday of March and the Saturday before.”

This year it will be held at Old Valley Grove Primitive Baptist Church five miles southwest of Ocilla off Ga 313 (Ocilla to Tifton).

The singing open to participants as well as visitors starts about 10 am and runs to mid-afternoon with a midday dinner-on-the-grounds.

The Sacred Harp Cookbook? Which one?

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There have been a few times I’ve seen someone on Facebook ask for a recipe, and in response someone said “It might be in The Sacred Harp Cookbook”. This information is almost always met with exuberant confusion that such a thing exists and THEY DON’T HAVE IT!

But there’s not just ONE, I know of THREE different “Sacred Harp Cookbooks”, which I will give information about below, in order they were published. Because of copyright reasons I won’t post more, but I believe the first two are out of print, but the last is still available. Are there MORE? Let me know: baltimoreshapenote@gmail.com

Blessings At Noon: The Sacred Harp Cookbook

by Karen Isbell & Shelly Robbins, Fundcraft Publishing, 1999

This was a comb-bound and professionally printed of about 100 pages. The front matter before the table on contents features photos from the years leading up to publication of “dinner on the ground” at various southern singings. The rest of the book is made up of many recipes from around the country. The publisher of the book specialized in printing fundraising books.

There is a page at Warren Steel’s website on the book containing recipes: “Blessings at Noon” .

A Sacred Feast: Reflections on Sacred Harp Singing and Diner on the Ground

by Kathryn Eastburn, University of Nebraska Press, 2008

Of the three books featured here, this is the only one published by a publisher and made available through major booksellers. The book is part memoir, park recipe book. The chapters are broken down by region: Southwest Texas; Birmingham; Henagar; Seattle, Boulder, and Colorado Springs; Hoboken; and Benton to Birmongham.

East Texas Sacred Harp Convention Book of Recipes

by Kim Vaughn, East Texas Sacred Harp Convention, 2010

The East Texas Sacred Harp Convention has a long history and many members of the Vaughn family appears to have been making contributions to documenting the history of Sacred Harp singing in that area, and in general, for many generations! This wire-coil bound 140 page book is a simple laminated covered book, probably prepared at a local print/copy shop.

Interspersed with the many recipes are short notes and photos related to Sacred Harp.

History

Sacred Harp Singers (1984)

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Sacred Harp Singers
Directed by Mark Brice
Summary: A moving portrait of harp singers Leonard and Maxine Lacy. Sacred harp music is a kind of harmonised plainsong practised in rural America. This film was shot in Sand Mountain, Alabama, and is recommended for ethnomusicology in particular.

Ethnomusicology, Fall 1987 | Film Reviews


Sacred Harp Singers. Produced and directed by Mark Brice and Chris Petry.
Video, color, 85 minutes, 1984. Distributed by the National Film and
Television School, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, U.K.

The title of this film is well chosen, for it is largely about the lives of Leonard and Maxine Lacy, two Sacred Harp singers from Sand Mountain, Alabama. There are numerous scenes shown of their daily life-farm work in particular-as well as their more social activities, which include picnics and Sacred Harp singing sessions, the latter usually in church but sometimes also in the living-rooms of fellow-singers.

“This is not a listeners music,” Leonard remarks early on, well-aware that to the uninitiated, these religious hymns, sung with the aid of a reduced solfeggio system by untrained voices, do not sound exactly mellifluous. In a scene filmed in his kitchen, Leonard explains that Sacred Harp music has only “got four notes-fa so la mi” and that these are repeated up a scale: fa so la mi fa so la mi fa. Such a system makes it possible to sing in any key, once one has picked the beginning “fa.” A T-shirt Leonard proudly wears later in the film further demonstrates the music. The top line of the shirt reads “I love Sacred Harp Music,” the middle line shows a musical scale, and the bottom line shows the elements this scale is composed of

fa so la mi

Several singing sessions are shown, usually with 15-20 singers seated by voice (SATB) on benches or pews in a square facing each other. A singer stands up, suggests a hymn to sing out of the hymnal (which is called the Sacred Harp, though this is not mentioned in the film), and leads through the song, first using the solfeggio pattern, then the words. Many hymns are no more than a page (2 long staffs), and partial repeats are common. The leader uses a simple up-and-down beat, often copied by the women singers in the film with their free hand, and when the hymn is done, another singer takes his or her place.

Very little information is provided on the music itself, other than that the Pilgrims sang sacred songs and that “more than 400 years ago, William Shakespeare mentioned sacred music sung with four notes.” The connection with Sacred Harp music is then not made, and one is left wondering whether this is Pilgrim music which wandered south, or whether there is some connection, given the shape of the notes, with medieval plainsong. Even non-musicologists can observe that this system simplifies intervals all “fa” notes are a fifth apart-to something even the musically illiterate can master. In the Sacred Harp hymnals I am familiar with, the hymns are all carefully dated, composers and arrangers are given, one often can tell
when voice lines are added (alto, in particular), and a lengthy introduction is given to this particular form of notation. That Billings frequently appears as a composer perhaps speaks for some Pilgrim connection; that lines are added to create four-part harmony perhaps speaks for some plainsong connection. None of this appears in the film.

Indeed, this film is more microethnography than ethnomusicology. The above commentary about possible origin, not to speak of the paucity of discussion about the “Shape-Note” form (as this notation is also called), indicate that this film is meant more for those who already know something about Sacred Harp singing than for neophytes. One can tell that the filmmakers are rather taken with the Lacys, and lovingly dwell on scenes of Leonard musing in a cemetery, Leonard discussing rabbits, Leonard examining a burnt-out house. One can also tell that Leonard is somewhat embarrassed and unsure of what to make of these filmmakers, especially when they ask him to “Tell us something about nature.” The filmmakers are unsure of their own focus, and seem to vacillate between a portrait of two people who are singers, a depiction of a musical form, and showing daily life in the South. The connection between Sacred Harp singing and the Lacys’ life in the end gets lost, for it remains unclear whether non-Sacred Harp singers
would not in fact provide a very similar kind of picture.

One has the impression from this film that Sacred Harp music is a very white-oriented pleasure for middle-aged and older Southerners that has something to do with religion. How widespread this musical form is, or what the religious connection is, remains obscure. If Leonard Lacy early on states that Sacred Harp music is “a good way to worship the Lord,” then this is a clue to be pursued, not buried. For improving this film, I would suggest that either a booklet be provided, or voice-over commentary be added to the film, to flesh out both the ethnography and the musicology. Judicious editing, particularly of the farm scenes, is also in order: its present length makes it unusable for classroom instruction. Viewers are not likely to know anything, not even what the hymnals look like, much less the notes, and they should be led by the hand through the material.

John Bendix
Lewis and Clark College
Portland, Oregon

Cheese Notes

LPs issued by the Sacred Harp Publishing Co.

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We have taken the text from “Chapter 7: Older Recordings (Pre-1977) of Traditional Singers Reissued on CDs and Internet” found on Steven L. Sabol’s terrific internet resource, and I have inserted the appropriate YouTube videos of the albums he describes.

We have appended the track listing provided by Jeramiah Ledbetter, who uploaded the videos into a playlist.

LPs issued by the Sacred Harp Publishing Co.

Recordings from 1965-1975 by the Sacred Harp Publishing Co. currently on YouTube. An historic series of LP record albums were produced by the Sacred Harp Publishing Co. from 1965 through 1975. Five out of the six original LP recordings featured a select group of the finest traditional Sacred Harpers, many now deceased, singing representative songs in a studio under the direction of Hugh McGraw. Although these were not the first recordings of Sacred Harp singing, Buell Cobb points out that they “stand above the rest in scope and consistency.” The six LP albums were numbered 101-106. In the early 2000s, they were combined into three compact discs (and three cassette tapes) by Morning Trumpet Recordings headed by Ted Mercer and Richard DeLong. Extensive sound restoration and digital remastering were performed. The CDs featured liner notes written by Buell Cobb and graphics by Lisa Grayson. However, when the CDs were sold out, reprinting was not done and Morning Trumpet ceased operation. Hopefully the CDs will be reissued somehow in the future. In the meantime, the original LP recordings have been placed by Sacred Harp singer Jeremiah Ledbetter on his YouTube channel. Photos of the back sides of the LP record jackets are also provided. The recordings are as follows:

Vol. 101: “Original Sacred Harp Singing in Traditional Style” presents 13 tunes.

143 Pleyel’s Hymn 00:00 218 Mount Pleasant 02:44 85 The Morning Trumpet 05:43 532 Peace And Joy 07:24 268 David’s Lamentation 94 Never Part 12:53 146 Hallelujah 15:59 455 Soar Away 18:30 144 Jubilee 21:47 171 Exhortation 23:51 329 Vain World, Adieu 25:49 274t The Golden Harp 27:57 120 Chambers 29:59

Vol. 102: “Fa Sol La Music Album Sung in Traditional Style by Sacred Harp Singers of the Southland” presents 15 tunes. Volumes 101 and 102 (28 songs) were combined and reissued as a CD in 1990 by Bibletone listed on Amazon.com. The entire Bibletone album and individual tracks are also on YouTube.

45t New Britain – 0:00 36b Ninety-Fifth – 2:30 410 The Dying Californian – 4:50 235b Long Sought Home – 6:52 147t Boylston – 9:54 420 Bishop – 13:20 149 The Trumpet – 15:09 282 I’m Going Home – 18:28 358 Murillo’s Lesson – 20:25 129 Heavenly Armor – 22:53 186 Sherburne – 24:58 161 Sweet Home – 26:45 294 Rocky Road – 29:56 122 All is Well – 32:53 62 Parting Hand – 35:15

Vol. 103: “Sacred Harp at the Old Country Church” presents 15 tunes.

64 Nashville – 0:00 40 Lenox – 1:48 99 Gospel Trumpet – 3:39 445b Passing Away – 5:56 460 Sardis – 8:05 569b Sacred Throne – 9:55 288 White – 11:49 213t The Good Old Way – 14:29 392 Manchester – 16:50 126 Babel’s Streams – 19:07 326 Weary Pilgrim – 20:33 236 Easter Anthem – 23:26 290 Victoria – 26:15 512 The Spirit Shall Return – 29:07 388 The Happy Sailor – 31:49

Vol. 104: “Sacred Harp Singing with Dinner on the Ground” presents 16 tunes.

283 Sabbath Morning – 0:00 318 Present Joys – 2:14 500 Living Hope – 4:35 373 Homeward Bound – 6:52 432 Cheves – 8:34 365 Southwell – 10:23 328 Praise God – 13:34 68B Ortonville – 15:30 75 I Would See Jesus – 17:37 39b Sharpsburg – 19:19 128 The Promised Land – 20:45 101t Canaan’s Land – 22:17 361 Loving Jesus – 24:10 422 Burdette – 26:05 523b Pleyel’s Hymn – 27:38 506 The Ark – 29:27

Vol. 105: “Fa-Sol-La Is Here to Stay” presents 15 tunes, mostly of Southern origin, including ones by A.M. Cagle and Ruth Denson Edwards, who headed the company at that time and sang in the group.

63 Coronation – 0:00 192 Schenectady – 2:03 462 Faith and Hope – 4:20 316 New Hope – 7:00 77t The Child of Grace – 8:58 70t Gainesville – 11:06 57 Christian Soldier – 13:01 394 The Messiah’s Praise – 15:13 446 Infinite Day – 17:15 45t New Britain – 19:16 314 Cleburne – 21:46 543 Thou Art God – 23:45 383 Eternal Day – 26:17 528 Showers of Blessing – 29:16 518 Heavenly Anthem – 31:39

Vol. 106: “Sacred Harp Bicentennial Celebration” presents 14 tunes. It was issued in 1975-76 at the time of the U.S. Bicentennial and thus fourteen popular New England tunes and anthems, including five each by Billings and Read. CHESTER is sung with Billings’ original patriotic words. The singing on the this recording is generally very strong because of the larger number of singers at this “open” singing.

36b Windham – 0:00 107 Russia – 1:55 186 Sherburne – 3:17 280 Westford – 5:12 300 Calvary – 7:05 137 Liberty – 9:04 220 Mount Zion – 10:50 299 New Jerusalem – 12:28 155 Northfield – 14:21 91 Assurance – 15:39 236 Easter Anthem – 17:05 268 David’s Lamentation – 19:50 479 Chester – 22:20 254 Rose of Sharon – 23:58

Cheese Notes

A timeline of the Baltimore-Washington All Day

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The broad outline of shape-note singing (and four shape-note in particular) is that it emerged from New England and took hold in the deep south and some western locales where it survived largely among isolated communities. It was in the 1930s that some academics discovered this American musical form had not disappeared, and studied and partook in it. It is mostly through these scholar-practitioners, and motivated enthusiasts that the traditional music and culture has seen several revivals and has slowly expanded into a vibrant and living community of singers around the world.

The first Southern shape-note tunebook was Kentucky Harmony by Ananias Davisson, published in 1816. Philadelphia was a major publishing hub of Shape Note books, and there have even been a couple books published in Baltimore. But, compared to other areas, Mid-Atlantic has had only a moderate history of shape-note singing, though it’s not completely alien, a topic for a different blog.

It is remarkable that Baltimore and Washington teamed up to begin to present All-Day singings beginning in 2013, two centuries after the cultural flight of the music from North to South. The singings were also two-book singings, using the Denson 1991 revision of The Sacred Harp and the Shenandoah Harmony books.

Unfortunately the pandemic that occurred beginning in 2019 did a great deal of damage in many ways, and shape-note singings suffered because of it.

A timeline of the Baltimore-Washington All Day Singings

1st Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2013
Sat., Oct. 12, 2013 from 10am-3:30pm
Church of the Ascension, 633 Sligo Ave,  Silver Spring MD 20910

There is a video playlist of 12 songs from 2013 available on YouTube.

2nd Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2014
Sat., Oct. 4, 2014 from 10am-3:30pm
Church of St. Monica/St. James, 222 8th St NE Washington DC

3rd Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2015
Sat., Oct. 3, 2015 from 10am-3:30pm
Faith Community Church, 5315 Harford Rd. Baltimore, MD 21214

4th Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2016
Sat., Oct. 1, 2016 from 10am-3:30pm
Cathedral of the Incarnation, 4 E University Pkwy, Baltimore, MD

5th Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2017
Sat., Oct. 7, 2017 from 10am-3:30pm
Woman’s Club of Arlington, 700 S Buchanan St, Arlington, VA 22204

6th Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2018
Sat., Oct. 6th, 2018 from 10am-3:30pm
Cathedral of the Incarnation, 4 E University Pkwy, Baltimore, MD

7th Annual Baltimore-Washington Shenandoah Harmony All Day Singing – 2019
Sat., Oct. 5, 2019 from 10am-3:30pm
Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church 201 4th St SE Washington, DC 20003

History

Deleted songs for the 1991 Sacred Harp

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UPDATE 10/15/23: Turns out the website was only down temporarily! The website and page (with linked files) are back online.

Missing images:
513-No More Sorrows.jpg
565-Unending Love.jpg
569-Love Beyond Degree Cncld, Star in th
464-Crown Him.jpg
467-Admonition p2.jpg
481-A Few More Years.jpg
538-The Living Way.jpg

The following post is pulled from an archive.org capture of the now defunct (at the time of my research on 10/01/23) website BostonSing.org. There has been such a great deal of good scholarship/study on the history of Sacred Harp and shape-note music and culture. But for many reasons that material goes out of print or websites go offline and it’s inaccessible. Luckily there are services like archive.org that allow the diligent to reach into the past and pull material into the present.

The original post, reproduced below, had links to images of the songs, used with permission, but those links were broken, so I’ve stripped out the references to them and their files sizes, just leaving the page numbers and titles of the songs.

I have not edited any of the introductory text or altered the links from how it was presented on archive.org, I have not confirmed any of the information.

The Sacred Harp – Deletions for the 1991 Edition

The Sacred Harp 1991 is descended from a series of shape-note books that began in 1844.  Over the years successive revisions added and deleted tunes from previous editions.  However, all tunes that were deleted before 1966 can be found online in either the 1859 edition or in the 1911 James Book. (All the tunes published in editions before 1859 or after that date, but before 1911, can also be found in either the online 1859 or 1911 editions respectively.)

There are, however, tunes that were printed in the 1936 and 1960 revisions that were deleted in the 1966 revision, and additional  tunes printed in the 1966 revision that were deleted upon publication of The Sacred Harp 1991. It is the intent of this webpage to provide images of the pages showing these deleted tunes.

Not all such tunes are illustrated here, only those tunes that can NOT be found on the 1850 and 1911 websites referred to above.

The tunes that are displayed can be found on the following pages in page number order beginning with the 1966 deletions, followed by those that took place in 1992, the actual publication date of The Sacred Harp 1991.

Note that all of these tunes are under copyright. The Sacred Harp Publishing Company has allowed permission for BostonSing.org to display its copyrighted pages online.

Deletions from 1966

469-God’s Promise
473-The Sinking Sun
479-For Me to Live is Christ
487-I My Cross I Have Taken
495-Zion’s Song
497-Heavenly Joys
506-Sewell
507-My Earnest Prayer
513-No More Sorrows
514-Jesus is the Theme
515-Jesus is the Theme Cncld, Calvary’s
523-Lord Hear My Plea
544-Parting With the World
545-Meditation
550-The Love of God
551-The Love of God Cncld
565-Unending Love
566-Unending Love Cncld
567-Love Beyond Degree
568-Love Beyond Degree Ctd
569-Love Beyond Degree Cncld, Star in th
572-Millard
573-God’s Call, Kambia
578-Funeral Hymn
393-Fairview
372-Lakeland
368-Draketown

Deletions from 1971

284-Entrekin
415-Endless Praise
464-Crown Him
466-Admonition
467-Admonition p2
468-Seaborn
469-Seaborn p2
472-Macedonia
474-A Friend to Grace
475-God’s Mercy
481-A Few More Years
484-Land of Rest
485-Land of Rest p2
492-Endless Life
493-Endless Life p2
494-Grace So Full And Free
497-The Choicest Blessing
501 My Soverign God
503-Eternal Blessings
504-In Thy Praise
510-A Song of Praise
516-Liberty Grove
538-The Living Way
539-The Living Way p2
540-Great Jehovah
547-My Desire
548-My Desire Ctd & The Saviour’s Love.j
549-The Saviour’s Love p2
556-Melissa
557-Melissa p2
569-A Parting Prayer
570-Our Saviour

Cheese Notes

Deep Dive | Sacred Harp – 47b Idumea

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“Deep Dive” will be a series of posts where we learn specific songs from our songbooks. Not just how to sing them, but some of the history of the songs and other interesting notes. We will pull learning information from a number of sources online and offline.

This is the first time I’ve tried assembling this type of information for a song. There are a tremendous number of resources out there but I don’t have access to them all and this singer is still relatively new to shape note singing and the history of Sacred Harp.

If you see an error, or using imprecise language, please offer feedback!

-Kevin

The Song

This song is featured in the two current popular tune books that Baltimore uses during out singings: Sacred Harp (1991 Denson) and Shenandoah Harmony. The latter has a different arrangement and is truncated to two lines (the first and third lines from Sacred Harp).

In this post, we will focus on the version presented in Sacred Harp (1991 Denson).

The song as presented in The Sacred Harp takes the first two stanzas of Charles Wesley’s “Hymn 59” and divides them into four lines for the song.

Music

Poetry

And am I born to die?
To lay this body down!
And must my trembling spirit fly
Into a world unknown?

A land of deepest shade,
Unpierced by human thought;
The dreary regions of the dead,
Where all things are forgot!

Soon as from earth I go,
What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
Must then my portion be!

Waked by the trumpet sound,
I from my grave shall rise;
And see the Judge with glory crowned,
And see the flaming skies!

Learning the Song

“Learn to Sing”

We’ll begin with Esther Morgan-Ellis’ terrific “Learn to Sing Sacred Harp” video on the song. Andy Ditzler joins her to sing the parts. If you’re not familiar with these videos, you should be! The screen is filled up with the musical notation (click “full screen” and watch on a real monitor or TV!) and Esther introduces the song and then each part is sung separately and then a “field recording” is played and sung along with.

Note: Esther has a website, a twitter. We link to the youtube channel itself on our Links page.

The video is broken down into “chapters” for you to easily find the part you want to practice.

Sacred Harp Bremen

Sacred Harp Bremen has a page for the song and a brilliant music player that gives you a synthesized tune for all the parts, and a track that combines them all: https://sacredharpbremen.org/47b-idumea/

Field Recordings

47b Idumea – Second Ireland Sacred Harp Convention, 2012
Holly Springs Sacred Harp singing: Idumea, #47b (1982)
47b, Idumea, from “The Sacred Harp” (2014, near Goshen, Indiana, the Michiana All Day Singing.)

The Source

The music of The Sacred Harp and shape note tradition often goes through many iterations over the course of their long lives.

Makers of the Sacred Harp

The book The Makers of the Sacred Harp identifies the source of “Idumea” in the following way

IDUMEA. S.M.
Words: Charles Wesley, 1763.
Music: Ananias Davisson, in Kentucky Harmony, 1816. Alto in Walker, Christian Harmony, 1867.

The Makers of the Sacred Harp, Steel, D.W.& Hulan, R. H., Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2010

I will note that printed below the title is a quote from Ecclesiastes 3:2 – “A time to be born and a time to die.” You can see variations of this line from various bibles at Bible Gateway.

Introduction to the Poetry

The CPDL website identifies the source of the poetry in the following way:

This is an hymn by Charles Wesley, originally published in Hymns for Children, 1763, as Hymn 59, with meter 66. 86. D (S.M.D.). This is not to be confused with “And am I only born to die,” with meter 886. 886, published in the same book as Hymn 64.

First Printing Poetry in Facsimile

The following was taken from an Archive.org scan, slightly cleaned up for presentation here:

First Printing Poetry Transcribed

Note: The following text replaces the archaic “long s” in the original with a modern “s”.

1.    And am I born to die,
      To lay this body down?
And must my trembling spirit fly
      Into a world unknown,
      A world of darkest shade,
      Unpierc'd by human thought,
The dreary regions of the dead,
      Where all things are forgot!

2.    Soon as from earth I go,
      What will become of me?
Eternal happiness or woe
      Must then my portion be:
      Waked by the trumpet’s sound
      I from my grave shall rise,
And see the judge with glory crown’d,
      And see the flaming skies.
 
3.    How shall I leave my tomb?
      With triumph or regret?
A fearful, or a joyful doom,
      A curse or blessing meet?
      Shall angel-bands convey
      Their brother to the bar?
Or devils drag my soul away,
      To meet its sentence there?

4.    Who can resolve the doubt
      That tears my anxious breast?
Shall I be with the damn’d cast out,
      Or number’d with the blest?
      I must from God be driven
      Or with my Savior dwell,
Must come, at his command, to heaven,
      Or else depart to hell.
 
5.    O thou who would not have
      One wretched sinner die,
Who died thyself, my soul to save
      From endless misery,
      Shew me the way to shun
      Thy dreadful wrath severe,
That when Thou comest on the throne,
      I may with joy appear.

6.    Thou art thyself the way:
      Thyself in me reveal,
So shall I pass my life’s short day
      Obedient to thy will;
      So shall I love my God,
      Because he first loved me,
And praise thee in thy bright abode
      Thro' all eternity.

The First Printed Arrangement in Facsimile

The first arrangement of “Idumea” by Ananias Davisson was printed in Kentucky Harmony (1816), and as can be seen, contains none of the lyrics of Charles Wesley’s “Hymn 59”. In fact, it contains the first stanza of the song printed in The Sacred Harp as “147t Boylston”.
Our facsimile is taken from an Archive.org scan.

First Printed Arrangement Poetry

My God, my life, my love,
To thee, to thee I call: 
I cannot live if thou remove, 
For thou art all in all.

First Arrangement Tenor Compared to Current Arrangement

If we focus on the Tenor, we can see minor differences between the 1816 and 1991 arrangements.

Christian Harmony Printed Arrangement in Facsimile

The setting in Christian Harmony (1867) is in a seven shape note style. It only includes three lines of poetry.
Our facsimile is taken from an Archive.org scan.

“Original Sacred Harp” Printed Arrangement in Facsimile

The setting in “Original Sacred Harp” (1911) is taken from an Archive.org scan.

The poetry here has four lines, the complete first two stanzas of the original hymn.
Note the following text follows the arrangement:

    The original title to these words was "And Others of Riper Years." See history of Charles Wesley on this and other pages of this work. He composed over 6,ooo hymns, and this one was among his favorites. 
    "Idumea" was printed in Walker's "Southern Harmony," in 1835, page 31; "Missouri Harmony," in 1837, page 32. It was first published in 1817. No trace can be found of A. Davidson, author of the music.

The phrase “And Others of Riper Years” was actually second half the enlarged title of a latter printing of the book that contained the original hymn: Hymns for Children, and Others of Riper Years.

Title Pages to Two Editions of Wesley’s Book

Hymns for Children
by Wesley, Charles
Bristol: E. Farley, 1763

Hymns for Children, and Others of Riper Years
by Wesley, Charles
London: R. Hawes, 1778

On Hymns for Children

[Charles Wesley.] Hymns for Children. Bristol: Farley, 1763.
2nd Bristol: Pine, 1768. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]
3rd London: Hawes, 1778. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]
4th London: Paramore, 1784. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]

From a document produced by Duke Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition:

When John Wesley visited the German Moravians at Herrnhut, he made note of an item (#12) in their constitution: “Our little children we instruct chiefly by hymns; whereby we find the most important truths most successfully insinuated into their minds” (see his Journal, 11–14 Aug. 1738). Encouraged by this precedent, John Wesley published a short volume of Hymns for Children (1747), including nine hymns drawn from HSP (1740), CPH (1741), and HSP (1742).
Seven of the hymns included by John Wesley in Hymns for Children (1743) were written by his brother Charles, showing their shared interest in hymns for children. Indeed, five of the hymns came from a set of seven to which Charles assigned that name in HSP (1742), 194–202. Similar hymns are scattered through Charles’s manuscript collections of verse from the early 1740s on. Moreover, he had considered gathering these into a separate volume from at least 1750. On January 29 of that year he wrote to Mrs. Mary Jones, of Fonmon Castle, Wales, that he was preparing a hymn-book for the students at Kingswood school. His plans for publishing this hymn-book were apparently delayed. A decade later, in a letter to his wife dated January 5, 1760, Charles again announced his intention to publish his “hymns for children” (almost certainly now gathered into a manuscript volume). But once again he was delayed. He developed a serious case of gout, from which he would take two years to recover. He devoted this time to Scripture Hymns (1762). Then, in early 1763, he finally published his own Hymns for Children.
This collection gathered together several different types of verse prepared by Charles over the two decades. The first thirty hymns follow closely the outline of the catechism Instructions for Children, which John Wesley published in 1745 (drawing on the work of Claude Fleury & Pierre Poiret). It is hard to imagine a more obvious use of the form of hymns to “insinuate the most important truths” into the minds of children! Moving on, in hymns 40–50 we surely encounter the core of the hymn-book that Charles was preparing in 1750 for the students at Kingswood School. The final section, “Hymns for the Youngest,” includes the only items that had been published previously, from the set of hymns for children in HSP (1742)—shown in blue font in the Table of Contents below.
Hymns for Children (1763) went through four editions over two decades. In late 1787 an abridged form was published. Given Charles’s declining health, the abridgment was surely done by John Wesley, who added a preface to a 1790 reprint. Cf. Hymns for Children (1787) in the section of this website devoted to John Wesley’s hymn collections.

Editions:
[Charles Wesley.] Hymns for Children. Bristol: Farley, 1763.
2nd Bristol: Pine, 1768. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]
3rd London: Hawes, 1778. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]
4th London: Paramore, 1784. [adds to title: and Those of Riper Years]