An Historical Study, and other music & worship links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• An Historical Study of Church Music Reform -- “The purpose of the study was to investigate the developments of church music in its historical perspective, and to discover if possible, guiding principles which might form a basis of judgment for the understanding and direction of contemporary church music.”
• Camille and Kennerly Kitt, the “Harp” Twins -- “Camille and Kennerly Kitt, American identical twin actresses, harpists, and famous YouTubers, have, in addition to 4 cover albums, released over 80 singles online.”
• Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot dies at 84 -- “Lightfoot’s 1976 epic, ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’ about the drowning of 29 sailors when a freighter sank in a storm on Lake Superior, remains one of fans’ most loved songs.”
• Charles Wesley -- “Watts’s great theme was divine majesty, and no one approaches him in excellence upon this subject. Wesley’s grandest theme was love—the love of God—and here he had no rival.”
• Haaswurth Hymnals and Music -- “Hymnals and books relating to hymnology and musicians, including the history of music and modern music.”
• Judge Jackson and the Colored Sacred Harp -- “Tells the story of Judge Jackson of Ozark, AL who published a book of religious songs written by and for African American Shape note singers in 1934.”
• North Carolina Shaped-Note Singing -- “In this region, shaped-note singing had a powerful advocate in North Carolina Heritage Award winner Quay Smathers (1913 – 1997).”
• Reforming Influences in 19th Century American Church Music -- “Perhaps the most influential author to express a reaction against the current condition of music in America—especially church music—was Thomas Hastings (1784-1872).”
• Reversing the Trend in Modern Worship -- “The true public worship of God is counter-cultural. To make people feel at ease is not its purpose. It is that they may sense the presence of the living God.”
• Songs Sacred, Moral, and Patriotick -- “The following Miscellany contains texts of all kinds associated with tunes in The Sacred Harp and other tunebooks.”
• The Red-Back Hymnal and A Good Church Singing -- “We sat near the back. We’d never been to a sing, and we certainly hadn’t been to a shape note sing, nor did we know what a redback hymnal was, but we quickly learned it was named for the pressed board trimmed in a red cloth cover.”
• The Sacred Harp and Shape Note Singing -- “Shape note singing originates in the New England region of America as way to help Americans read music and participate more freely in religious activity.”
• The Variety of Influence: Forms of Craftsmanship in the 1960 Edition Sacred Harp -- “While there may have been a certain slipshod quality to the book, both as a physical object and in some of the music it contained, it could boast of having introduced such quintessential Sacred Harp classics as...”
• This was Their Story – James Deck -- “It was while he was young, between the ages of 31 and 37, that he wrote all of the hymns for which he is now known.”
• Throat-singing -- “Throat-singing is a range of singing styles in which a single vocalist sounds more than one pitch simultaneously by reinforcing certain harmonics (overtones and undertones) of the fundamental pitch.”