A Selection Of Shape Note Folk Hymns

xiv + 172 pp., includes facsimile pages

On any Sunday afternoon a traveler through the Deep South might chance upon the rich, full sound of Sacred Harp singing. Aided with nothing but their own voices and the traditional shape-note songbook, Sacred Harp singers produce a sound that is unmistakable--clear and full-voiced. Passed down from early settlers in the backwoods of the Southern Uplands, this religious folk tradition hearkens back to a simpler age when Sundays were a time for the Lord and the “singings.” Illustrated with forty-one songs from the original songbook, The Sacred Harp is a comprehensive account of a unique form of folk music. Buell Cobb’s study encompasses the history of the songbook itself, an analysis of the music, and an intimate portrait of the singers who have kept alive a truly American tradition.

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The occasion of Dr. Hatchett's thirtieth anniversary as professor of liturgics and church music at the School of Theology of the University of the South is being celebrated with this stimulating collection of essays by an international cadre of authors.

This authoritative reference work investigates the roots of the Sacred Harp, the central collection of the deeply influential and long-lived southern tradition of shape-note singing. Where other studies of the Sacred Harp have focused on the sociology of present-day singers and their activities, David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan concentrate on the regional culture that produced the Sacred Harp in the nineteenth century and delve deeply into history of its authors and composers. They trace the sources of every tune and text in the Sacred Harp, from the work of B. F. White, E. J. King, and their west Georgia contemporaries who helped compile the original collection in 1844 to the contributions by various composers to the 1936 to 1991 editions. The Makers of the Sacred Harp also includes analyses of the textual influences on the music--including metrical psalmody, English evangelical poets, American frontier preachers, camp meeting hymnody, and revival choruses--and essays placing the Sacred Harp as a product of the antebellum period with roots in religious revivalism. Drawing on census reports, local histories, family Bibles and other records, rich oral interviews with descendants, and Sacred Harp Publishing Company records, this volume reveals new details and insights about the history of this enduring American musical tradition.

Baptists have a long and rich heritage of congregational song. The hymns Baptists have sung and the books from which they have sung them have been shaping forces for Baptist theology, worship, and piety. Baptist authors and composers have provided songs that have made an impact not only among Baptists in America but also across denominational and geographic lines. Congregational singing continues to be a key component of Baptist worship in the twenty-first century. Beginning with an overview of the British background, this book is a survey of the history of Baptist hymnody in America from Baptist beginnings in the New World to the present. Its intent is to help the reader better understand the background against which current Baptist congregational song practices operate. Unlike earlier writings on the subject, this book provides both comprehensive coverage and a continuous narrative. It gives thorough attention to the major Baptist bodies in America as well as calling attention to the contributions of significant smaller groups. The British Baptist background is dealt with in an introductory section. The book also includes many texts and tunes as illustrations of the topics being discussed and focuses on some of the contributions of Baptist authors and composers to the repertory of congregational song. Book jacket.

This definitive volume of gospel music arranged for fingerstyle guitar is sure to become a classic. Duck Baker has applied his expertise as a guitarist and musicologist to produce a labor of love and scholarship that will delight performers and audiences alike. Various facets of religious folk music are presented with generous performance/historical notes and vintage photographs. More than 50 tunes are presented in both notation and tablature with the majority of arrangements in standard guitar tuning. The online audio consists of performances of 24 of the arrangements in the book. One song features guitar and voice and the rest are guitar solos. The tunes represent a cross-section of the different guitar styles covered in the book. Includes access to online audio.

Trained in Russia, Zeitlin (1884–1930) was an accomplished composer, conductor, performer, and pedagogue. In writing Palestina, Zeitlin, as he had done during his entire career, was fulfilling the goals of the Society for Jewish Folk Music, which he joined in 1908 while still a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory: to compose and perform works of art music on motivic material drawn from Jewish cantillation, liturgy, and folk song. In addition to employing two modes central to Jewish music and several Jewish tunes, in Palestina Zeitlin actually imitates the shofar calls heard in the synagogue before and during Rosh Hashanah and at the conclusion of Yom Kippur. This edition includes an extensive essay on the composer and on the themes and structure of Palestina, with insights into the Capitol Theatre and the role of music in picture palaces of this era.