The Makers of the Sacred Harp

A comprehensive guide to the texts and tunes of an American musical tradition

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.

CONTENIDO:

List of Illustrations
Introduction, David Warren Steel

Part One: The Book
1. The Origins of the Sacred Harp
2. The Chattahoochee Valley
3. The Westward Migration
4. The Sacred Harp and the Civil War
5. Musical Families
6. P rofessions and Occupations
7. Teachers and Tradition
8. The Styles of Sacred Harp Music

Part Two: The Words
9. Frontiers of the American Hymn, Richard H. Hulan
10. Sketches of Selected Poets and Hymn Writers, Richard H. Hulan

Part Three: The Composers
11. Biographical Sketches of the Composers
12. Sacred Harp Composers, Arranged by Birth Date

Part Four: The Songs
13. The Songs of the Sacred Harp
14. Sources for the Songs
Notes
Bibliography
Index