The Sacred Harp

The Sacred Harp
Author: Buell E. Cobb, Jr.
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2004-12-01
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0820323713

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.

The Makers of the Sacred Harp

The Makers of the Sacred Harp
Author: David Warren Steel
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2010
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252035674

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.

Dixie's Forgotten People, New Edition

Dixie's Forgotten People, New Edition
Author: Wayne Flynt
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2009-08-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780253003034

"The best sort of introductory study... packed with enlightening information." -- The Times Literary Supplement Poor whites have been isolated from mainstream white Southern culture and have been in turn stereotyped as rednecks and Holy Rollers, discriminated against, and misunderstood. In their isolation, they have developed a unique subculture and defended it with a tenacity and pride that puzzles and confuses the larger society. Written 25 years ago, this book was one scholar's attempt to understand these people and their culture. For this new edition, Wayne Flynt has provided a new retrospective introduction and an up-to-date bibliography.

Handbook of Texas Music

Handbook of Texas Music
Author: Laurie E. Jasinski
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 2008
Release: 2012-02-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0876112971

The musical voice of Texas presents itself as vast and diverse as the Lone Star State’s landscape. According to Casey Monahan, “To travel Texas with music as your guide is a year-round opportunity to experience first-hand this amazing cultural force….Texas music offers a vibrant and enjoyable experience through which to understand and enjoy Texas culture.” Building on the work of The Handbook of Texas Music that was published in 2003 and in partnership with the Texas Music Office and the Center for Texas Music History (Texas State University-San Marcos), The Handbook of Texas Music, Second Edition, offers completely updated entries and features new and expanded coverage of the musicians, ensembles, dance halls, festivals, businesses, orchestras, organizations, and genres that have helped define the state’s musical legacy. · More than 850 articles, including almost 400 new entries· 255 images, including more than 170 new photos, sheet music art, and posters that lavishly illustrate the text· Appendix with a stage name listing for musicians Supported by an outstanding team of music advisors from across the state, The Handbook of Texas Music, Second Edition, furnishes new articles on the music festivals, museums, and halls of fame in Texas, as well as the many honky-tonks, concert halls, and clubs big and small, that invite readers to explore their own musical journeys. Scholarship on many of the state’s pioneering groups and the recording industry and professionals who helped produce and promote their music provides fresh insight into the history of Texas music and its influence far beyond the state’s borders. Celebrate the musical tapestry of Texas from A to Z!

Sacred Song in America

Sacred Song in America
Author: Stephen A. Marini
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780252028007

In Sacred Song in America, Stephen A. Marini explores the full range of American sacred music and demonstrates how an understanding of the meanings and functions of this musical expression can contribute to a greater understanding of religious culture.Marini examines the role of sacred song across the United States, from the musical traditions of Native Americans and the Hispanic peoples of the Southwest, to the Sacred Harp singers of the rural South and the Jewish music revival to the music of the Mormon, Catholic, and Black churches. Including chapters on New Age and Neo-Pagan music, gospel music, and hymnals as well as interviews with iconic composers of religious music, Sacred Song in America pursues a historical, musicological, and theoretical inquiry into the complex roles of ritual music in the public religious culture of contemporary America.

The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing

The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing
Author: Esther M. Morgan-Ellis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1009
Release: 2024
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0197612466

"The Oxford Handbook of Community Singing shows in abundant detail that singing with others is thriving. Using an array of interdisciplinary methods, chapter authors prioritize participation rather than performance and provide finely grained accounts of group singing in community, music therapy, religious, and music education settings. Themes associated with protest, incarceration, nation, hymnody, group bonding, identity, and inclusivity infuse the 47 chapters. Written almost wholly during the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic, the Handbook features a section dedicated to collective singing facilitated by audiovisual or communications media (mediated singing), some of it quarantine-mandated. The last of eight substantial sections is a repository of new theories about how group singing practices work. Throughout, the authors problematize the limitations inherited from the western European choral music tradition and report on workable new remedies to counter those constraints"--