Christian shape note

It is a sad commentary on The Sacred Harp that it is rather consistently promoted in modern times as a secular non-Christian activity. Yes, they will usually make some admission to its Christian origins and the existence of Christian hymn texts – but the emphasis is that this is for anyone and everyone. It does not matter what you believe, what is your lifestyle, or even if your worldview is antagonistic toward Christianity.

Now, we recognize that it is true that singings have always been public events to which anyone and everyone was invited. Sacred Harp singers thought their activity was a good thing that could be a blessing to anyone. However, that has been turned on its head, so that anyone and everyone should be strategically involved in how Sacred Harp should be conducted, promoted, written, and revised. 

In contrast to modern “standards,” the old conventions had detailed constitutions and bylaws. Every member had to agree to and abide by those rules. The North East Texas Musical Convention was organized circa 1866 (based on the dating of its annual sessions). “Article 9th” of the Constitution stated “The Sacred Harp shall be our text book at each meeting.” Not only was decorum expected at the convention, but outside of it as well. For example, “Article 10th” of the Bylaws stated “If any member be guilty of any bad conduct, such as drunkenness or disturbing the pease at Public worship, shall be dealt with as the Body may deem wright.”

Obviously the name “Sacred” Harp, the Christian themes of the hymns, and the purpose of conventions promoting “sacred vocal music” indicate what the origin and history of the music is. As one of our bright young Alabama singers reflected, “No one is going to make people say the apostles creed at the door, however, it’s the bare minimum to recognize the Christian nature of what is being participated in.” She also noted, “If that’s a turn-off for someone, perhaps they have been mocking God with a solemn sound upon a thoughtless tongue.”

In the context of that conversation, my daughter also emphasized, “It’s fair to say it’s increasingly evident that describing it [Sacred Harp] transparently as Christian is important and necessary.”

Some of us want to take back our tradition to what it was and is. This is not disinviting non-Christians, but a refined invitation asserting that you need to know and understand what this is before you come. If you do not like that, no one is making you do anything. Your choice.

Shape note singers -- Be aware

Back in September I posted a warning to an anonymous individual. Now I am officially issuing a warning to all anonymous shape note singers.

I put on notice that shape note singers will not get a pass to hide behind anonymity to take potshots on shape note and Sacred Harp subjects. If your post is suspect, your post will be deleted. If you are willing to use your name and own your comments, your posts will not be deleted.

He and They, a “Prodigal” Misgendering

In a sad state of affairs, leftists, liberals, and lost unbelievers asked for the keys to shape note singing, and some shape-note singing leaders gladly handed them over. They put them in official capacities in their organizations and teaching positions in their camps. They invited them to teach singing schools. The placed them on boards and committees.

Consider an example of how far we have traveled from a once-Christian singing tradition to acquiesce to the promotion of the leftist political and sexual agenda of (politically) correct pronouns. The prodigal son and his father are identified as male (in both the Greek and English). Nevertheless, persons who regularly complain about people misgendering others are fine with misgendering the prodigal son and his father. What is good for the goose is evidently not good for the gander.

Many “correct pronoun” sites tell us that “singular they” is used when referring to a single person whose gender is unknown, non-binary, or not specified. None of these three things apply to the prodigal son or his father. Jesus identifies the gender of both persons, which is clear in both the Greek original and the English translation. John Newton also specified the gender in his hymn “The Prodigal Son.” So, those who promote the supposed use of “correct pronouns” are inconsistent and freely contradict their own dictums. Such cases prove it is an agenda to be pushed, rather than a rule to be followed.

The following text (below) of the hymn “The Prodigal Son” by John Newton is presented in the left column. The hymn as corrupted and used with the tune Prodigal (Song No. 7) in the 2024 shape-note songbook The Valley Pocket Harmonist is shown in the right column.

[Note: I primarily marked the misgendering, with strikethrough for removals and yellow highlight for additions. However, I did mark a couple of other things, such as the apparent distaste of the editor  for killing a fatted calf. Some other minor differences may be in their sources rather than 2024 changes.]

The prodigal son becomes a plural amorphous they, and so does the prodigal’s father. That is not how Jesus told the story, is not how John Newton wrote it, and is not how Christians have passed either the story or the hymn down. This is a most egregious form of cultural appropriation – not only of the traditional form of shape note singing, but also turning the 18th century author of “Amazing Grace” into a purveyor of their modern (and unscriptural) ideas about gender and their “ideals” about pronouns!

There is something more sinister bungled up in the hatchet job. It may not be obvious – not only the father in the story, but the Lord God himself becomes “they.” The “he” in this line of Newton’s hymn – “More than a father’s love he feels” – is God. It is God who reveals his love and calls sinners home. It is God who feels more love than the father in the story, and welcomes all that come. To the irreverent hymn editor the line becomes, “More than the father’s love they feel” – unleashing the blasphemous “correct pronoun” on God the Father.

If you want to have and eat your cake, go find your own hymns – or make your own – but please leave our Christian hymns alone!

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Note: In East Texas, our Baptist forebears and other Christians sang from The Sacred Harp songbook. We know the book was present here shortly after it was published in 1844, and some of us still sing from it today. The songs are Christian-themed, Bible-based, and provide a form of praise & worship to God. While we do not have this problem locally, for a number of years there has been a move afoot that has placed in leadership positions those who do not believe in the exclusivity of salvation through Jesus Christ alone. This leads to a watering down of the faith and practice of the singings (i.e., people sing what they do not believe). The editors of The Valley Pocket Harmonist –the traffickers of this textual travesty – run in Sacred Harp circles. How long before such settles into The Sacred Harp? Will there be subtle shifts when the curtain is drawn back and we can actually see the 2025 Edition of The Sacred Harp?

The Old-Time Songs

“The Old-Time Songs” poem describes a (perhaps imaginary) singing that uses Christian Harmony, Sacred Harp, and Temple Star song books. It is not unrealistic to believe a singing in 1913 could have used all three of these popular books. However, the page numbers and words (though real song words) do not correspond with the songs in these books on the numbers mentioned. Perhaps “D. G. B.” simply intended to be humourous.

The Athens (Georgia) Banner, Sunday, August 17, 1913, page 4

Will the Waters Be Chilly was never in The Christian Harmony, so far as I know, but it is a good song.

Soul Songs and Sonnets, Authors, Inquiries

On Wednesday I published “#” McNiel, about a local singing school teacher, composer, and publisher. He taught singing schools in our community in the early 1900s. He and Bernard N. Richards[i] created the McNiel-Richards Music Company, and published at least two shape note songbooks – Soul Songs and Sonnets: A superior collection of Songs and Hymns for the Church, Revival, Sunday-school, Prayer Service and Convention in 1909 and Sunbeam Songs: A superior collection of New and Old songs for the Church, Sunday-school, Revival, Young People’s Societies, Prohibition, and Convention Work in 1910.

My grandfather’s brother, B. L. Vaughn, had a song (maybe more than one) published in one of the McNiel-Richards books. It is not in Soul Songs and Sonnets. It must be in Sunbeam Songs, unless there is a third compilation of which I am unaware.

Soul Songs and Sonnets lists McNiel and Richards as the publishers/editors. Four other men are listed as “Associate Authors” – A. L. Reed, Doug Goldsberry, Joe R. Day, and J. E. Sullivan. I know who Goldsberry and Day are, and would love to identify Reed and Sullivan. I am posting their pictures below in hopes that someone somewhere somehow might be able to identify them.

Two reasonable guesses without proof are John Edgar Sullivan (1873-1956) and Albert Lee Reed (1872-1944).[ii]

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[i] Incidentally, Richards is related (great uncle) to my oldest brother-in-law, Harold B. Blanton.
[ii] In 1910, Sullivan lived in Nacogdoches County, and Reed lived nearby in Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas.

“#” McNiel

From The Best Gospel Songs and Their Composers, 1904

Julian Hilary “Sharp” McNiel was born in Rusk County, Texas, November 13, 1873, the son of George Thomas McNiel and Susan Frances Wallace. He married Nettie Lee Irby (1875-1958) in 1896 and they were the parents six children.

He studied music at an early age under his brother, Larkin McNiel, followed by J. B. Martin and Miss Margarite Wood.[i] In 1898 he attended the Southern Normal Musical Institute (S.N.M.I.) at Mansfield, Texas, which was conducted by A. J. Showalter and Edwin Moore. He received a diploma from S.N.M.I. in 1901 at Childress. He taught singing schools and conducted normals in Texas and Oklahoma (and perhaps other places). He directed music for gospel meetings, and composed music. In his songbooks, he often signed his name with the musical sharp symbol – “# McNiel.”[ii] With Bernard N. Richards, he formed the McNiel-Richards Music Company by 1908. They published at least two songbooks – Soul Songs and Sonnets: A superior collection of Songs and Hymns for the Church, Revival, Sunday-school, Prayer Service and Convention and Sunbeam Songs: A superior collection of New and Old Songs for the Church, Sunday-school, Revival, Young People’s Societies, Prohibition, and Convention Work. In addition, McNiel copyrighted one book before the partnership was formed: McNiel’s Loyal Melodies: a Choice Collection of New Songs for the Church, Revival, Convention and all Christian Endeavor Work (by Sharp McNiel, with special contributors, copyrighted in April of 1908). Both the Trio Music Company of Waco and A. J. Showalter published his songs before he formed the McNiel-Richards Company, and other publishers printed some of his songs after his death.

In a 1905 mail survey conducted by A. J. Showalter, among the “ten gospel songs of other composers [i.e., other than Showalter] receiving the greatest number of votes thus far are: ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus,’ by C. C. Converse, 420; ‘Blessed Home,’ by J. E. Bigby, 336; ‘Glory Over Yonder,’ by Sharp McNeil (sic), 252; ‘God Be With You Till We Meet Again,’ by W. G. Tomer, 231…”[iii]

From The Best Gospel Songs and Their Composers, 1904

Sharp McNiel was apparently affiliated with the Church of Christ. His brother Richard Hubbard McNiel was a fairly well known Church of Christ evangelist in the early 1900s.

McNiel named one of his daughters Jennie Wilson McNiel. In all likelihood, he named her after the popular hymn writer Jennie Bain Wilson (author of “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand”). The respect in which McNiel was held can be seen in a singing class called the Sharp McNiel class nearly forty years after his death (See Tyler Morning Telegraph, Thursday, Septemeber 17, 1949, page 7).

McNiel died at the young age of 37 after an attack of appendicitis. On Wednesday the 19th of April in 1911, he was taken to the sanitarium in Nacogdoches, Texas, where they performed an operation. He died the following Sunday. McNiel is buried at the Gould Cemetery in Rusk County, north of the Sulphur Springs community.

“My only desire, while laboring through this life is to be successful in teaching the young men and women of our land and country, the noble science and power in sacred song: Thus enabling them to praise the most holy and righteous Saviour, by singing the sweet songs of Zion.” – Sharp McNiel, in a footnote under song No. 18 in Soul Songs and Sonnets.

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[i] I did not identify J. B. Martin. 24 year-old Margarette Wood is listed in the 1900 Rusk County census. She was born in Missouri in December of 1875, and was boarding with Lola Tatum Miller in Henderson. Her sister May also lived with Mrs. Miller. “Teacher [of] Music” was Margarette’s occupation. She may be the teacher under whom Sharp McNiel studied. I believe this person is the same as Margaret E. Wood who returned to Missouri and taught piano at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/93607661/margaret-e-wood
[ii] At least in the one I have, Soul Songs and Sonnets.
[iii] The Arkansas Gazette, Sunday, May 7, 1905, Part II, page 10.

Southern Harmony in Western Tennessee

While searching for information on the Baptist preacher Alonzo Nunnery, I found the following obituary posted on the Find-A-Grave memorial for William Robert Vaughan (no known relation) of Weakley County, Tennessee.

DEATH OF WELL KNOW CITIZEN

Mr. W. R. Vaughan died Tuesday night at his home, one mile east of Ralston, after an illness of several months of cancer of the stomach, followed by paralysis. Mr. Vaughan was one of the oldest and best known men of that vicinity. He had lived there practically all his life and was one of the original members of the Old Southern Harmony singing class, which held regular annual reunions up until a few years ago. He was a splendid citizen upright and honorable in all his dealings with his fellow man. On Sunday night he suffered a stroke of paralysis, remaining speechless all the following day and died Tuesday night. Mr. Vaughan was the father of Mrs. Desdy Bragg of Dresden, Tom Vaughan of Martin and Cleveland Vaughan of Memphis. The remains were laid to rest Wednesday at the Martin cemetery. Many friends extend sympathy to the bereaved wife and children.

Dresden Enterprise and Sharon Tribune, September 09, 1921, page 5.

One thing that caught my eye was that he “was one of the original members of the Old Southern Harmony singing class, which held regular annual reunions up until a few years ago.” I’ve not known a lot of how the general demise of singings from the Southern Harmony book played out – but here we see it continuing in Western Tennessee into the first quarter of the 20th century.

All-day singing in Flatwoods (probably the one in Perry County, Tennessee)

The Camden Chronicle, April 26, 1901, page 2

A. N. Whitten and the United Association

I have previously posted a good bit about Archibald Newton Whitten, and compiled a booklet of some of his life history. But it has been a while. Recently, Jesse P. Karlsberg, Sacred Harp singer, composer & vice president of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, found a connection of Whitten to the United Sacred Harp Musical Association – at least for 1921. That year the association met in the Auditorium-Armory in Atlanta, Georgia, September 9-11, 1921. Whitten is listed as an “Assistant” on the Executive Board of Council of the United Association. So 100 years ago (and a few days) A. N. Whitten was one of four Texans on this Council.[i]

 

 Minutes of the United Sacred Harp Musical Association, Atlanta, Georgia, September 9-11, 1921, page 2
(Picture furnished by Jesse P. Karlsberg)

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[i] Perusal of the minutes suggested Whitten was not in attendance of the Association in Atlanta. Jesse also said that Whitten’s name does not appear in the Executive Council members in 1925, the next oldest minute that he has.

A. N. Whitten and the Harp of Ages

An Old Harper: A. N. Whitten and the Harp of Ages

In 1925 A. N. Whitten of Dublin, Texas compiled and presented a small seven-shape songbook titled Harp of Ages.[i]  Besides an interest in his music and songbook, I have a genealogical interest in the man Archibald Newton Whitten. My dad’s mother was a Whitten, but I have not been able to figure out where the families connect. Her people were Methodists and came to Texas from Tennessee via Missouri. His people were Baptists, and he was born in Georgia. Interestingly, the “Archibald” given name crops up over and over again in my Whitten family genealogy/history.

Archibald Newton Whitten was born in Georgia on March 16, 1856 to Andrew Jackson Whitten and Mary Ann Davis.[ii] His father was a Primitive Baptist preacher. A. N. was living in the household of his parents in Georgia in 1860 (Murray County) and 1870 (Mitchell County). He was living in Tallapoosa County, Alabama when the census was taken in 1880. He was a farm laborer living with his first wife Nancy Horsley and their two sons: Jonathan and Patrick.[iii] A letter referenced in A Portion for the Singers indicates Whitten had been teaching singing schools for 45 years, indicating he started around 1880 while still in Alabama.[iv] The family came to Texas in early 1894.[v] Inza (later Inez) was born in Texas in 1895. Nancy died sometime between that time and September 18, 1898, when A. N. married Rachel Florida Whitfield, daughter of John Miles Whitfield and Mary Jane Kinney. They had 3 children – Henrietta Bernice, Archibald Viron, and Gladys Wilma – before her untimely death February 15, 1906 at age 33.[vi]

After Rachel’s death, A. N. married Dora Finger Norton, daughter of Elder J. W. Norton and Nancy Caledonia Elliott.[vii] She had a daughter, Willie, from her previous marriage to Clark Moore.[viii] Dora and A. N. had three children, Archibald Newton Jr., Redford Cayce, and Winston Albion.

According to Drummond, A. N. Whitten helped Elder C. H. Cayce produce The Good Old Songs and then later disassociated with him.[ix] In a letter to the periodical Glad Tidings, Whitten gives this apology for his upcoming songbook: “We are aware of the fact there have been published several hymn and tune books for the Old Baptists; but none of these seem to satisfy a majority of Texas Baptists. I have in mind a book that I believe they would adopt in their church worship…” [x] The first Harp of Ages was a relatively small book published in 1925. It had approximately 160 pages, ending on song number 159.[xi] Like many song books of that period and before, Harp of Ages included “Rudiments of Music.”[xii] Apparently Whitten expanded the book a few times during his lifetime, and others did so after his death. His son Winston Albion Whitten published the book sometime after his father’s death in 1949, while he was living in Lake Charles, Louisiana. According to the Primitive Baptist Library, the “4th edition” has 191 hymns. It is not clear whether the 2nd and 3rd editions are also that size.[xiii] In 1971 Harp of Ages, Inc. was formed. This body published the 1973 and 1977 editions (about 416 songs/382 pages). These editions do not give edition numbers that could help clarify which edition was the last complied by Whitten – but likely it was the 4th edition.

A. N. Whitten was active in his local Primitive Baptist Church and associations. From currently available information it is not clear to me of which church he was a member – probably the one sometimes described as the Primitive Baptist Church in East Dublin. Whitten sent an announcement to paper of a protracted meeting at the Primitive Baptist Church in East Dublin, with Elder E. C. Mahurin.[xiv] The Dublin Progress reported his leading the singing at the Duffau Primitive Baptist Association held in De Leon in 1913.[xv] In 1938 A. N. Whitten was in charge of the song service at the “revival” at First Primitive Baptist Church in Dublin, with Elders J. C. Morgan and Len Dalton.[xvi] He announced to the Progress the meeting of the Old Harmony Primitive Baptist Association, July 11-14, 1940.[xvii]

Whitten frequently announced and/or was associated with singings mentioned in the Progress, some which included four-note books, Christian Harmony and “late books.”[xviii] With “Mr. Free of Abilene,” A. N Whitten taught a free Sacred Harp singing school at the Primitive Baptist Church in East Dublin in 1933.[xix] He was a leader in the Erath County Singing Convention, and was the local chairman of arrangements for the State Sacred Harp Association when it met in Dublin in 1938.[xx] In 1929 Progress Editor Francis E. Perry highlighted Whitten in his column “Wise, Unwise, and Otherwise,” noting him as “a citizen who not only writes songs but is a song publisher…” Perry mentions that Whitten has issued a new edition of Harp of Ages, lists songs that he wrote, and concludes by calling A. N. Whitten “one of the best loved citizens in this territory.”[xxi] In 1943 and 1944 The Dublin Progress published several letters in which A. N. Whitten recorded his “boyhood reminiscences.” Unfortunately, the online scans of most of these are quite hard to read.[xxii]

Elder M. W. Miracle began publishing The Sacred Harp Monitor in December 1912, under the auspices of the State Sacred Harp Association of Texas. In that issue, A. N. Whitten is listed as one of 12 associate editors, and there are two letters written to the paper from him. The October 1913 issue still listed him as such.[xxiii] Around 1915 Elder Miracle moved on to edit “The Good Old Songs Department” in C. H. Cayce’s periodical The Primitive Baptist. Whitten joined Miracle as part of the editorial staff of “The Good Old Songs Department.”[xxiv]

In 1917 A. N. Whitten was the vice-president of the State Sacred Harp Singing Association of Texas, and then served as president in 1918, 1919, and 1920. Some records indicate singings in Erath County that used both the Sacred Harp and Harp of Ages.[xxv] Two songs in The Sacred Harp, 2012 Cooper Edition, came from Harp of Ages (added to The Sacred Harp book in 1992) – Eden of Love, 39 and John 4:14, 133.[xxvi]

Archibald Newton Whitten died August 18, 1949 at the Dublin Hospital in Dublin, Texas at age 93. His cause of death was prostate cancer. His “usual occupation” is listed as farming (he may have derived a minor income from his songbook and teaching singing schools). He, Dora, and several other family members are buried at the Live Oak Cemetery in Dublin (at the time of his death called New Dublin Cemetery).[xxvii] The newspaper reported that he died “after several weeks’ illness” and that the funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church “with Rev. R. V. Sorrells (sic) of Abilene officiating.” The paper described A. N. Whitten as “well known in Dublin and the surrounding communities and has many friends here who extend their sincerest sympathy to the bereaved relatives.”[xxviii]

Paul Drummond’s assessment of the Harp of Ages, musically, is that the largest percentage of songs are folk hymns and Sacred Harp songs – 51 percent. He adds that almost 25 percent “may be categorized as Gospel Songs.” By “Gospel Songs” he means songs from what he considers the Kieffer/Showalter tradition, the Sankey/Bliss tradition, and the Stamps-Baxter tradition. He does not indicate how he categorizes the roughly other 24 percent. Other categories Drummond uses in A Portion for the Singers are Mason/Bradbury hymns, Traditional Protestant hymns, and original hymn-settings by Primitive Baptists. The songs written by A. N. Whitten would fall in this latter category, but possibly some of the other categories as well.[xxix]

There is no date in the Harp of Ages book that I have, but it was published in 1946 or later. Number 61 is a song titled It Must Have Been at Easter Time Long Ago (The Model Church), and is dated 1946. Whitten sent the words in to the Progress and they were printed in it April 19, 1946.[xxx] I counted the pages in this book; the song numbers are not page numbers. There are 192 total pages – the cover page and rudiments, pages 1-12; songs numbered 1-191 (with some “As” and “1/2s” in the page numbers), but actually 178 pages; finally, 2 unnumbered pages of Index.

By my count, the Harp of Ages credits 16 songs to A. N. Whitten, plus nine more that he arranged or harmonized and 3 Sacred Harp tunes to which he added alto. In addition, Francis Perry lists a song titled Leave Me Alone among those written by A. N. Whitten.[xxxi] The books I own do not have a song by that title in their indices. The accurate title is Leave Me Not Alone, which was removed and replaced by It Must Have Been at Easter Time Long Ago. Songs from Harp of Ages have found their way into other books, such as the two mentioned above (Eden of Love and John 4:14). Balm in Gilead from the 1973 Harp of Ages is included in The Shenandoah Harmony.

Whitten’s Harp of Ages songbook achieved its greatest success in his home state of Texas. Drummond indicates it found a home as well in churches in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Virginia, and California.[xxxii] The book still has a following, not only among Primitive Baptist churches that still use it, but also among Sacred Harp singers introduced to it at the Saturday Night Social of the Southwest Texas Sacred Harp Convention. It has a number of original tunes that are not available elsewhere.[xxxiii] Nevertheless, its use will be limited and constricted because it is no longer in print and a reprint seems unlikely.

Sources

• A Portion for the Singers: A History of Music Among Primitive Baptists Since 1800 by Robert Paul Drummond, Atwood, TN: Christian Baptist Library & Publishing Co., 1989
• Ancestry.com
• Find-A-Grave.com
• Gaylon Powell, e-mail
• Harp of Ages, A. N. Whitten, Dublin, Texas, no date
• Harp of Ages, A. N. Whitten, Harvey L. Bass, Afton E. Richards, Muleshoe, TX: Harp of Ages, Inc., 1977
• Primitive Baptist Library web site
• The Dublin Progress newspaper, Dublin, Texas, May 19, 1905—August 19, 1939
• The Sacred Harp Monitor, M. W. Miracle, Dallas, Texas, December 1912 and October 1913

PDF, 1973 edition of the Harp of Ages

Download the Harp of Ages

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[i] A few songs in the book are printed in 4 staves and 4 shapes. See, for example, Let Us Sing, song number 120.

[ii] Some sources give “Head” as her maiden name, but I believe this is in error. Andrew Jackson Whitten was married twice, first to Ann Head, and second to Mary Ann Davis in 1850. A. N. Whitten’s death certificate gives the maiden name of his mother as “Davis” and the date of A. J.’s marriage to Mary Ann Davis would confirm this is correct. Archibald Newton Whitten

[iii] He married Nancy November 8, 1877 in Tallapoosa County.

[iv] Portion, Drummond, p. 169

[v] The children of Archibald and Nancy include Jonathan, Patrick, Mary Lucinda, Kieffer, Grover W., Samuel Cicero, and Inza/Inez.

[vi] Rachel Florida Whitfield Whitten; sometimes the middle name of the son “Viron” is given/spelled as “Vernon.”

[vii] Dora Finger Norton Whitten

[viii] The 1910 census indicates she also had lost a child in addition to the two living, Willie Moore and A. N., Jr.

[ix] “We are under many obligations to Brother A. N. Whitten, of Dublin, Texas, for the great help he has been to us in the preparation of the work.” – “Preface,” C. H. Cayce, The Good Old Songs, 1913, p. 3

[x] Letter to the editors of Glad Tidings, November 1, 1922, cited in Drummond, p. 168.

[xi] E-mail from Gaylon Powell, February 15, 2019

[xii] Harp of Ages, pages 3-12.

[xiii] “Listing of Our Holdings of Primitive Baptist Periodicals and Hymnals”; the 191 page book that I have includes the song It Must Have Been at Easter Time Long Ago, which was written in 1946. Perhaps this was the 4th edition; I suspect earlier books also ended on song 191, and that the song number 61 was substituted for another song. The text of this 1946 song was sent in to The Dublin Progress and printed on the front page April 19, 1946.

[xiv] The Dublin Progress, Friday, April 23, 1937, p. 1

[xv] The Dublin Progress, Friday, August 22, 1913, p. 5

[xvi] The Dublin Progress, Friday, June 3, 1938, p. 1; It is not clear whether First Primitive Baptist was using the term “revival,” or if that terminology was chosen by the newspaper.

[xvii] The Dublin Progress, Friday, July 5, 1940, p. 1

[xviii] The Dublin Progress, Friday, May 19, 1905, p. 8

[xix] The Dublin Progress, Friday, July 21, 1933, p. 3

[xx] The Dublin Progress, Friday, July 15, 1938, p. 1

[xxi] The Dublin Progress, Friday, August 18, 1939, p. 1

[xxii] In the August 20, 1943 issue of the Progress, Whitten describes “the old church yard,” “Elder William Hubbard…the old Cornfield Preacher,” and Old Brother Clinkscales who “takes charge of the song service.” Whitten mentions the church singing Promised Land, Holy Manna, and Parting Hand. No doubt, this describes some of the earliest foundations and roots of his music. Whitten’s reminiscences are found at least in these issues: The Dublin Progress, Friday, June 25, 1943, p. 6; Friday, August 20, 1943, p. 6; Friday, October 8, 1943, p. 5; Friday, November 19, 1943, p. 4; Friday, December 10, 1943, p. 2; Friday, March 10, 1944, p. 5

[xxiii] The Sacred Harp Monitor, M. W. Miracle, Dallas, Texas, Volume 1, Number 1, December 1912; The Sacred Harp Monitor, M. W. Miracle, Dallas, Texas, Volume 1, Number 11, October 1913; these are the only two issues I have located.

[xxiv] Drummond, pp. 161-162, 165

[xxv] Including Drummond, p. 169; Also a Memorial Sacred Harp Singing held November 14, 1943 with The Sacred Harp and Harp of Ages – The Dublin Progress, Friday, November 12, 1943, p. 1.

[xxvi] John 4:14 in this Sacred Harp book is the original by Morris Nowlin rather than the revision/arrangement by Carolia Johnson printed in Harp of Ages in 1973. When the 1992 edition of the Cooper Book came out, I was given information on sources of all the tunes added to the book. John 4:14 was listed as an original composition by Morris Nowlin, rather than as coming from the Harp of Ages. I was told that this was because the song, as printed in the Cooper Book, was submitted by Brother Nowlin as originally written by him.

[xxvii] State of Texas Certificate of Death, Number 37999

[xxviii] The Dublin Progress, Friday, August 19, 1949, p. 1

[xxix] Drummond, pp. 168-169, 225-328; it appears that Drummond collated the edition with 191 numbered songs. He says it was probably released around 1946 (based on the song number 61).

[xxx] The Dublin Progress, Friday, April 19, 1946, p. 1

[xxxi] The Dublin Progress, Friday, August 18, 1939, p. 1

[xxxii] Drummond, p. 171

[xxxiii] Whitten’s tune From the Heavenly Choir (127) is an exquisite minor tune, in my opinion. No Vacant Seats in Heaven (74) combines well the doctrine of the preservation of the saints with a very nice tune by Whitten and Mrs. J. B. Edwards. How Sweet to Die (13) was written in memory of Elder S. A. Paine, incorporating his last words, “O, how sweet to die.”

East Texas Sacred Harp Convention

It is here! The 161st Anniversary of the East Texas Sacred Harp Convention with convene August 13th and 14th, 2016 at the Henderson Civic Center (d.v.). The Civic Center is located at 1500 Lake Forest Parkway (at or near the corner of State Highway 64 and Lake Forest Parkway) in Henderson, Texas. We sing from 9:30 - 3:00 on Saturday and 9:30 - 2:30 on Sunday, using the 2012 Cooper Edition of The Sacred Harp. On Saturday night we have a social at the Henderson Civic Center at 6:00 p.m.  In addition to food and fellowship, those who want to will gather to sing afterward. It's "mix-and-match". If you have songs you'd like to sing, bring copies of them -- new compositions or songs from other shape note tune books. You probably need to bring 30 songbooks or photocopies.

Rusk County Singing Convention

Please make time to join us for the Rusk County Singing Convention on the 4th weekend in April. The convention will be held Saturday, April 26 and Sunday, April 27, 2014 in Rusk County, Texas.

The Saturday session sings from The Christian Harmony (2010 Revision) at Old Redland Church. Old Redland church house is at the corner of FM 1798 and FM 2496, about 2 miles east of Laneville, Texas. The Sunday session sings from The Sacred Harp (2012 Cooper Revision) at the Old Pine Grove Church & Cemetery. Old Pine Grove is located on County Road 364, southeast of Henderson, Texas. Each day we will start at 10:00 a.m. and conclude around 3:00 p.m.

More information here:
http://singings.texasfasola.org/annual/rusk_county.html
http://www.rockerontheporch.us/easttexassingings/ruskcounty.html

From this explosion all the fragments join:
Joy tunes the fray until the song is one.
(adapted from Madeleine L'Engle)

Oblong format songbook advantages

"Musical notation requires more space than a literary text. It is usually read more slowly (the rough approximation of a minute a page for books is, generally, a half to one-fifth of the time required for a page of music), and it is read at the fixed pace specified by the tempo of the music. The process of performance also denies the reader any freedom to re-read, to skim, or to stop momentarily at the end of a line or a page, even for purposes of turning the page. For such reasons, special layout patterns have been found desirable for musical notation." -- Krummel, p. 312

Advantages of oblong format dispersed staff shape note books:

1. there is a longer span of continuous musical text which conveys better the linear construction of the music. (longer staves and fewer line ends)

2. the sight-reader benefits from fewer interruptions in the line of music on a page; i.e. you can read across the page for a longer period of time before the interruption of shifting to the next...

3. the singer can more easily look over the top of an oblong page in order to watch the leader (as opposed to looking over a tall or upright page)

4. the dispersed staffs better display part/voice crossing.

5. an oblong book stays open on its on better than an upright book (e.g. laying open in your lap).

Disadvantages of oblong format dispersed staff shape note books:

1. the oblong page is slightly more awkward to turn (the page-turning hand must travel further; not a problem very often, since there are not that many "page-turners").

2. multiple lines of text are farther away from the line of music.

3. an open oblong book takes up more horizontal space (not usually a problem, unless the  location is exceptionally small and the chairs forced as closely as possible).

Some thoughts based on: D. W. Krummel, "Oblong Format in Early Music Books." The Library, Series Five, XXVI, no. 4 (1971): 312–24