The Makers of the Sacred Harp (Music in American Life)

by David Warren Steel, Richard H. Hulan (Primary Contributor)

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.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

321 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2010

Reviews

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of an amazing piece of Americana has told through music. this is a reference guide to the hymnal the Sacred Harp, which is amazing.

[Leland Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my current project, compiling a polyglot, Esperanto-centered fasola tunebook (Sankta Harmonio, July 2015), this is a simply indispensible reference work. It is full of information I need, most of which is well organized. There are some lacks in the indexes, things I wish had been indexed (either items or categories) that were not, and I would have appreciated at least a list of the authors/composers/sources that were deemed too well covered in other literature to need mention here, and a detailed treatment of the underlying tunebooks and whatnot (e.g. Wyeth; Tennessee Harmony; Mercer's Cluster...); also, some sort of index to the various editions (not just Cooper's earliest and latest editions, but that too), giving information on items that are not in the 1991 Denson book, would have been appreciated. So there's definitely room for a more compendious work of this sort. But as far as it goes, it is wonderful.

For those just looking to read about Sacred Harp and its antecedents, parts of the book are very interesting reading, but others will feel sort of like reading a phone book.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be a handy reference book, as a companion to The Sacred Harp. It is good to know about the people who wrote the songs we love to sing!

[Nigel Ewan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting nuggets surrounded by large swaths of dry, research-oriented information. It would be nice to own this as a reference.

[Antonio Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book detailing the wacky corner of the history of hymnody in America. Perfect for a Sacred Harp enthusiast and hymn scholar, for its short but detailed sections on authors and tunes.