The Makers of the Sacred Harp
- Author: Hulan, Richard
- Author: Steel, David Warren
Hymnologists and sacred harp singers will delight in this book. Highly recommended
The Makers of the Sacred Harp
- Author: Hulan, Richard
- Author: Steel, David Warren
Purchase product
Hymnologists and sacred harp singers will delight in this book. Highly recommended
About
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.
Contents
- List of Illustrations ix
- Introduction xi
- David Warren Steel
- PART ONE: THE BOOK
- 1. The Origins of the Sacred Harp 3
- 2. The Chattahoochee Valley 12
- 3. The Westward Migration 14
- 4. The Sacred Harp and the Civil War 16
- 5. Musical Families 20
- 6. Professions and Occupations 32
- 7. Teachers and Tradition 36
- 8. The Styles of Sacred Harp Music 39
- PART TWO: THE WORDS
- 9. Frontiers of the American Hymn 57 Richard H. Hulan 10. Sketches of Selected Poets and Hymn Writers 70 Richard H. Hulan
- PART THREE: THE COMPOSERS
- 11. Biographical Sketches of the Composers 81
- 12. Sacred Harp Composers, Arranged by Birth Date 173
- PART FOUR: THE SONGS
- 13. The Songs of the Sacred Harp 179
- 14. Sources for the Songs 247
- Notes 257
- Bibliography 263
- Index 299
Awards and reviews
Hymnologists and sacred harp singers will delight in this book. Highly recommended
