Abbington, James. Let Mt. Zion Rejoice! Music in the African American Church. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 2001.
With a brief history of Black church music, chapter one starts with the current state of music in the African American church, its musicians and essentials. It also devotes a chapter on hymnody and its purpose in congregations.
Appel, Richard G. The Bay Psalm Book and Its Music. 9th ed. NY: Brooklyn College, 1975.
This is the "most important American versification of the psalms" and gives directions as to how psalms should be sung. It is a monograph in shaped-note notation, and common-meter tunes (4 tunes) are predominant.
Ayars, Christine Merrick. Contributions to the Art of Music in American by the Music Industries of Boston 1640 to 1936. New York: H. W. Wilson, Co., 1937.
This book is a detailed analysis of the publishing industries of Boston from the pioneering days to present. It contributes a chapter to the publishing of The Bay Psalm Book and more importantly the books published by “our first real American composer, William Billings (1746-1800).” It also introduces the first books printed with bar lines, introducing the art of singing by notes.
Bandel, Betty. Sing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land: The Life of Justin Morgan. Rutherford, NY: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981.
This book is the life story of Justin Morgan, a composer and Vermont settler during the last decade of the eighteenth century. He was one of a number of Vermont singing masters at the time who compiled, edited, and published tunebooks that contained his own music. Later, the books were used in the singing schools which provided the “only joy” in many an isolated village during the long winter months. Joy versus perfection.
Barbour, J. Murray. The Church Music of William Billings. East Lansing, Michigan: Da Capo Press, 1960.
William Billings is known as the first American composer. This book contains appendices with an alphabetical index of Billings’ Psalm Tunes, and index of Billings’ anthems by text. It also refutes writers who have accused Billings as musically illiterate. It devotes a chapter on how he picked his text and another chapter on his “unerring feeling” for “the simplest and most regular type of melodies.”
Barzun, Jacques. Music in American Life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1956.
This book offers a history of music in America embedded in cultural, political revolutions, tastes and techniques. A chapter on “The Esthetic Effect” can be used to discuss that of shape-note singing.
Bayer, John. Sacred Harp: Four Shape Music Notation Primer for Young Children. Dayton, OH: John Bayer, 1997.
The author is a Sacred Harp singer in Ohio and compiled this book for his children on Shape Names, Notes and their Values, Rests and their Values, and Repeat Marks, Dots, Hold Signs, Modes, Scales and Examples. There are also games for children such as cut-outs, coloring pages, mazes and connect-the-dot.
Bealle, John. Public Worship, Private Faith: Sacred Harp and American Folksong. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997.
Besides a historical background of shape-note singing, this 300+ page book devotes several interesting chapters to the “Minutes of…” various singing conventions, from Union Singing to the 56th United Convention to the First New England Convention. In each convention, the members volleyed songs with business reports. The book also ends with a list of songs, old and new, in the revisions of The Sacred Harp.
A Beginner’s Guide to Shape-Note Singing. Ed. Lisa Grayson. Chicago, IL: The Chicago Sacred Harp Singers, 1997.
This book was originally written by an a "notable and gifted alto in Chicago" and contains chapters such as Basics of Shape-Note Singing, The Story of Shape-Note Music, Anatomy of a Sacred Harp Tune, and First Steps in Sight Reading for Absolute Beginners.
Birge, Edward Bailey. History of Public School Music in the United States. Wash. D. C.: Music Educators National Conference, 1966.
Chapter one of this book discusses the development of the singing-school which is gave school-music its first methods and teachers. It is important to note that the roots of public school music were to improve singing in church services.
Britton, Allen P., Irving Lowens and Richard Crawford. A Bibliography of American Sacred Music, 1698-1810. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 1990.
As titled, this book is another bibliography of American Sacred Music that will be helpful for examination for tunes of shaped-note notation.
Cobb, Buell E., Jr. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989.
This is the history and background of the Sacred Harp, plus a look of its traditions and music, revisions and conventions. There is an appendix of Sacred Harp music and a list of Traditional Sacred Harp Singing sessions with dates and locations.
Crawford, Richard, comp. Catalog of the Musical Works of William Billings. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991.
This is a compilation of the works of William Billings. It is convenient to search through a book of only his works rather than a compilation of all American hymn tunes.
Crawford, Richard. The Core Repertory of Early American Psalmody. Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 1984.
This describes the three stages of American tunebook publishing from 1698 to 1810, how the publishers chose the core repertory, what music it chose, notes on performance, historical commentary, and the collections of tunebooks that contain the core repertory.
Crawford, Richard and David P. McKay. William Billings of Boston, Eighteenth-Century Composer. NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Again, another book devoted to the pioneering composer, William Billings. This one, though, has an appendix that discusses the performance of his music in the twentieth century and gives advice on reading hi score. It also quotes Billings, in regards to the Sacred Harp’s nasal vocals. Shape-note singing should not be taken as “an authentic replica” of the style of Billings’ time, but is the best guide to consult.
Davidson, James Robert. A Dictionary of Protestant Church Music. New Jersey: Scarecrow, 1975.
This book compiles all the terms used in Protestant church music to help save time for scholars.
Dean, Talmage W. A Survey of Twentieth Century Protestant Church Music in America. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1988.
This provides a history up to current twentieth century Protestant church music. It has a chapter on the indigenous history of the singing-schools, the gospel songs, folk hymnody, and the spirituals.
Evans, Mary Ann. Poetry of the Sacred Harp Hymnal, 1971 and 1991 Revisions. Denver, CO: Mary Ann Evans, 1992
This booklet is a “useful index of phrases found in the texts of Sacred Harp songs.” The index is used to look up a phrase or keyword and find the page number(s) of song(s) containing it in the text.
Foote, Henry Wilder. Three Centuries of American Hymnody. Hamden, Conn.: The Shoe String Press, Inc., 1961.
The author refers to the colonial period as “The Reign of the Bay Psalm Book” and discusses the revival of singing in eighteenth century New England, the transition from psalmody to hymnody, and various controversies over the singing practices.
Gingerich, James Nelson and Matthew Lind, comp. The Harmonia Sacra Handbook. Goshen, IN: James Nelson Gingerich, 1994.
This is a book with a list of information for every song in the 25th edition of the Harmonia Sacra: Tune name, first line, meter, doremi, alternate name, composer, date, earlier source of tune, text author, date, and source of text.
Horn, Dorothy D. Sing to Me of Heaven: A Study of Folk and Early American Materials in Three Old Harp Books. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1970.
This book provides examples in round notes for early pieces, four-shape notation for examples from The Southern Harmony and The Original Sacred Harp, and seven-shape notation for examples from The New Harp of Columbia. It discusses the singing from those three books and their notations.
Jackson, George Pullen. Another Sheaf of White Spirituals. 1952. FL: University of Florida Press, 1981.
This book contains “tunes and words from a variety of Southern and Northern sources, including a few field recordings.”
Jackson, George Pullen, ed. Down-East Spirituals and Others: Three Hundred Songs Supplementary to the Author’s “Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America”. 1943. NY, NY: Da Capo Press, 1975.
This book is self-explanatory by its title and is unfortunately out of print. This book would help to examine more sacred Southern songs.
Jackson, George Pullen. Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America. 1975. Magnolia, MA: Peter Smith Publishers, 1937.
The author is a “foremost musicologist of American folk songs.” The books consists of many hymn tunes and texts, some of which are found in The Sacred Harp.
Jackson, George Pullen. White and Negro Spirituals, Their Lifespan and Kinship. NY, NY: Da Capo Press, 1944.
This book is also out of print but would help in pulling together the ties of white and Negro spirituals, and how they each influenced one another.
Kroeger, Karl. American Fuging Tunes, 1770-1820: A Descriptive Catalog. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.
This book lists almost 1300 tunes, alphabetically by tunename. The author also provides biographical sketches of composers.
Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. NY, NY: W. W. Norton, 1964.
This is a general book spanning the history of music and musicians in early America, and is worth noting for the singing-school tradition.
Michael, Daniel N., comp. Alphabetical Listings of Sacred Harp Composers and Authors with Their Works. East Haven, CT: Daniel N. Michael, 1993.
This is a resource book containing the alphabetical listings of composers and authors listed with their works, and song numbers listed by meter. Also included are timelines of Sacred Harp works from 1710 to present.
Miller, Kiri. The Chattahoochee Musical Convention, 1852-2002: A Sacred Harp Historical Sourcebook. 1852-1952. Carrollton, GA: The Sacred Harp Museum, 2002.
This is a sourcebook on the oldest still-convening Sacred Harp singing convention, the Chattahoochee of west Georgia. It provides a detailed histry of the first hundred years of the convention and also includes convention minutes, letters, photos, newspaper clippings about the convention.
Nathan, Hans. William Billings: Data and Documents. Detroit: Information Coordinates for the College Music Society, 1976.
This is a monograph of “biographical and bibliographical study” on the professional activities of William Billings. It presents his little known data and documents with narrative and a list of his music. This includes an early commentary on Billings, his appearance, an open letter on psalm singing, and several illustrations of his writings and music.
Sheppard, Shelbie, comp. Sacred Harp Singings: Annual Minutes and Directory. Gadsden, AL: The Alabama State Sacred Harp Convention, 2001.
The author is the Minutes Book secretary of the Alabama State Sacred Harp Singing Convention and has published a book of minutes oriented toward singings from the 1991 “Denson” Edition of the Sacred Harp. It is “an indispensable annual book for singers desiring to network, travel, and sing Sacred Harp.”
Stevenson, Robert. Protestant Church Music in America. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1966.
This book includes various articles ranging from “Early Contact with the Aborigines” to “New England Puritanism, 1620-1720,” to “Singing-School Masters in the New Republic” to “Negro Spirituals: Origins and Present-Day Significance” to “Diverging Currents, 1850-PRESENT.”
Temperley, Nicholas and Charles G. Manns. Fuging Tunes in the Eighteenth Century. Warren, MI: Harmonie Park Press, 1983.
This lengthy book contains a list of pre-1800 tunebooks containing fuging tunes although the music is not present.
Topp, Dale. Music in the Christian Community: Claiming Musical Power for Service and Worship. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., 2001.
The author stresses how music should serve worship words and not upstage and dominate our attention at the expense of meaning of the words. We should not fall into musical “distractions.” From that intro, one realizes the seriousness of this no-nonsense Christian sense of music with chapters on “choosing music” and “choosing people,” explaining the difference between good music and bad music, how to overcome textural weaknesses and musical weaknesses. There are also lots of step-by-step “planning and listening” for children and adults.
Willet, Henry, ed. In the Spirit: Alabama’s Sacred Music Traditions. Montgomery, AL: Alabama Folklore Association, 2002.
This is a book that contains twelve essays on a variety of Alabama folk-religious music traditions, It also includes an audio recording with examples of music described in the book.
Allaire, G. G. “The Theory of Hexachords, Solmization, and the Modal System.” Musicological Studies and Documents 24 (1982)
This article which runs the entirety of the book is very theory-based, with diagrams and musical examples to support the theory of hexachords and the technique of solmization based upon the analysis of musical writings of medieval and renaissance theorists. It does not discuss the Sacred Harp or shape-note singing directly but may be helpful for reading shaped-note music.
Allen, Ray. “African-American Sacred Quartet Singing in New York City.” New York Folklore 14.3-4 (1988): 7-22.
This article deals with the African-American tradition of sacred singing and how it develops in New York City.
Apel, Willi. “Fasola.” Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1944.
The dictionary defines “Fasola.”
Beary, Shirley. “Stylistic Traits of Southern Shape-Note Gospel Songs.” The Hymn 30 (1979):26-33.
The author gives a detailed analysis of textual characteristics, musical characteristics, and stylistic characteristics of shape-note gospel songs. She also provides musical samples.
Beckwith, John. “Tunebooks and Hymnals in Canada, 1801-1939.” American Music 8 (1988):193-234.
As titled, this article gives a chronological list of tunebooks and hymnals in Canada, with commentary. It also provides musical samples and origins of various tunes. Between 700 and 800 original hymn tunes are contained in the sources listed, some of which are influenced by the New England singing-school movement. These tunes were of early North American Methodism.
Bendix, John. Rev. of Sacred Harp Singers, dir. Mark Brice and Chris Petry. Ethnomusicology 31 (1987):525-26.
The film is about two Sacred Harp Singers from Sand Mountain, Alabama, and their daily farm-work life and social activities. One of the singers states that Sacred Harp music is “a good way to worship the Lord.” The review does not describe the singing, ie. pitch, dynamics, etc.
Berg, Wesley. “Hymns of the Old Colony Mennonites and the Old Way of Singing.” Musical Quarterly 80.1 (1996):77-117.
This article discusses the private singing tradition of the isolated groups of Mennonites who originated in the Netherlands. The Mennonites emigrated to Canada and the states of Minnesota, Kansas, and Oklahoma in 1874 and brought along their “Old Way of Singing” which is characterized in the article: “Their stubborn adherence to a musical practice that seemed melodically corrupt and aurally offensive was incomprehensible to the educated musician. It is only when the singing and the melodies are seen as an elemental way of making music, especially in settings where transmission of text is a priority, and as a profound expression of a particular way of viewing the world that their importance as more than just a strange way of singing hymns can be understood.”
Berger, Karol. “The Expanding Universe of Musica Ficta in Theory from 1300 to 1550.” Journal of Musicology 4 (1986):410-30.
Another theoretical paper that is difficult to understand. It is lengthy and describes the use of accidentally inflected steps.
Bierck, Julius G. “Billings’ Psalmody.” Dwight’s Journal of Music 3 (1853):2.
This authentically dated piece on Billings’ Psalmody starts with William Billings’ birth and list of published works. It also describes his musicality and performance.
Blum, Beula Eisenstadt. “Solmization and Pitch Notation in Nineteenth-Century American School Music Textbooks.” Journal of Research in Music Education 19 (1971):443-452.
This article discusses the Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) and his teachings on using numbers to represent the degrees of the scale. Notation is thus simplified to reach the common massed. It shows the evolution of musical notation in American school music books.
Boeringer, J. Rev. of The Sacred Harp. Facsimile reprint of 1859 edition, by B. F. White. The Hymn 19 (1968): 93-95.
This is a review on The Sacred Harp and its new edition which can be compared with the 1860 on-line edition.
Boswell, George W. Rev. of The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and its Music, by Buell E. Cobb, Jr. Western Folklore 40 (1981): 276-7.
This is the history and background of the Sacred Harp, plus a look of its traditions and music, revisions and conventions. There is an appendix of Sacred Harp music and a list of Traditional Sacred Harp Singing sessions with dates and locations. The review discusses the book.
Breckbill, Anita. “The Hymns of the Anabaptists: An English-Language Bibliography.” The Hymn 39 (1988):21-23.
This is an annotated list of hymnals by the Anabaptists.
Britton, Allen P. “The Original Shape-Note Tune Books.” Studies in the History of American Education. Ed. Claude Eggertsen. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan School of Education, 1947.
This is an article on the various original shape-note tunebooks available. The author describes their history and influence on music education.
Card, Edith B. “The Tradition of Shaped-note Music: A History of its Development.” Foxfire. Ed. Paul F. Gillespie. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1982: 280-92.
This author guides her reader through the history of shape-note notation and the development of the music and changing traditions.
Covey, Cyclone. “Did Puritanism or the Frontier Causes the Decline of Colonial Music?” Journal of Research in Music Education 6 (1958):68-78.
This is a dialogue debated by “Mr. Quaver” and “Mr. Crotchet.” It is lively and recalls Debussy’s own dialogue with a M. Crochet. It mocks Puritanism and notes, “At least Billings’ Puritanism did not kill his love of music.”
Crawford, Richard. “’Much Still Remains to Be Undone’: Reformers of Early American Hymnody.” The Hymn 35 (1984):204-08.
The titled quote is the credo of several generations of reformers who between 1790s and 1850s worked to change their fellow countrymen’s taste in sacred music, preferring good to bad church music and preferring “scientific” music and decorous piety. These reformers tried to get their countrymen on the “right musical and spiritual track,” preaching on behalf of “scientific” musical tastes, being hostile to indigenous American music, folk music, and hymnody at the time.
Crawford, Richard. Rev. of The Music of the English Parish Church, by Nicholas Temperley. The Hymn 32 (1981):115-17.
This is a review on the book by Nicholas Temperley, and the reviewer quotes Temperley, “In the English parish church, there has never been full agreement as to whether the primary goal is for the people to sing as well as they can, or for the music to be as good as possible.” This is an important book relating to my topic. Temperley writes with a good balance that does not separate the standard musical quality from musical function. However, he also does not chastise those who try to make the music as good as possible in church.
Crawford, Richard, and David P. McKay. “The Performance of William Billings’ Music.” Journal of Research in Music Education 21 (1973):318-30.
This article deals with Billings’ musical compositions and the advantages and disadvantages of performing his music. First, the melodies are simple and pleasing to sing, with detailed notes on his foremost concerns. There are not a lot of technical difficulties. This only leaves the problem of authenticity in which the article tries to aid the singer by explaining Billings’ writings on various aspects of performance.
Downey, James C. “Revivalism, the Gospel Songs, and Social Reform.” Ethnomusicology 9 (1965):115-25.
The author does not describe the songs, merely the relationship between the gospel songs, the forces of reform, and revivalism in the music used in revival services by Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and their followers between 1875 and 1930.
Durnbaugh, Hedwig T. “Geistreiches Gesang-Buch, 1720—The First Brethren Hymnal.” The Hymn 42 (1991):20-23.
The author found the titled book in the attic of a parsonage in Wittgenstein, Germany. This German hymnal was published in 1720 by Christoph Konert and is the origin of several American denominations, and the author describes the book and its contents.
Ellis, Howard E. “Lowell Mason and the Manual of the Boston Academy of Music.” Journal of Research in Music Education 3 (1955):3-10.
This article notes that Lowell Mason’s Manual of the Boston Academy of Music is “presumed to be the chief means by which Pestalozzian principles of teaching music [by numbers] were brought to the U. S.” The manual is actually a translation of Kubler’s Anleitung, but Mason took the credit of authorship by inconspicuously noting it in a footnote that was lost in the various revisions.
Elward, Thomas J. “Thomas Harrison’s Patented Numerical System.” Journal of Research in Music Education 28 (1980):218-24.
Thomas Harrison of Springfield, Ohio, originated his own musical notation system based on numerals for which he received a patent. His notational tunebooks of music instruction was limited and merely regional, but his patented system represents the “typical, entrepreneurial, pioneering American character.”
Eskew, Harry L. “Shape Note Hymnody.” Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 6th ed. Wash., D. C.: Macmillan, 1980.
This is a brief definition of shape-note hymnody that could come in handy.
Eskew, Harry L. “Southern Harmony and Its Era.” The Hymn 41 (1990):28-34.
This article introduces William Walker and his book of songs, Southern Harmony, which influenced the American heritage of church songs. It is treated as “a singing school tunebook, a hymn text collection, and a collection of music. It is in the tradition of shaped-note notation and contains over 300 pieces of choral music ranging from simple hymns to fuging tunes and anthems.
Felde, Marcus Paul Bach. “Local Theologies—License to Sing.” The Hymn 40 (1989):15-20.
This is an interesting article about translating the worship book for doing theology in the Third world. Hymns in the Lutheran church in Papua New Guinea is refashioned or retailored to different constituencies: youth groups, language groups, schools, seminaries, etc.
Finney, T. M. “The Third Edition of Tufts’ ‘Introduction to the Art of Singing Psalm-Tunes.’” Journal of Research in Music Education 14 (1966):163-70.
This article strangely describes the third edition of a book, noting sizes, binding, sewing, etc. The emphasis is on the importance of the book as a landmark in music education. The interesting point is that the publisher references to “harsh and loud singing as violating the ‘Rules of good Manners.’”
Graham, John R. “Early Twentieth-Century Singing Schools in Kentucky Appalachia.”
Journal of Research in Music Education 19 (1971):77-84.
This article is written about the development of Kentucky singing schools from the first known one in Lexington in 1797. The author interviewed seven experienced teachers of the early 1900s too obtain first-hand information on the singing school practices of the early twentieth century.
Grashel, J. W. “The Gamut and Solmization in Early British and American Texts.” Journal of Research in Music Education 29 (1981):63-70.
The gamut and solmization are two theoretical concepts introduced by the ancient Greeks and used extensively in early British and American music textbooks after development. This article deals with the study of the concepts in several factors of the aforementioned textbooks.
Hamm, Charles. “The Chapins and the Sacred Music in the South and West.” Journal of Research in Music Education 8 (1960):91-98.
In this article, the author attempts to identify “Chapin” of several piece of American sacred music of the late 18th and early 19th century. Without a positive answer as which Chapin was the absolute composer, the author states that Chapin played a “quite formidable role in the formation of the traditions of sacred music in the South and West” and describes the music.
Hammond, R. Paul. “The Hymnody of the Second Great Awakening.” The Hymn 29 (1978):19-28.
This article describes thee correlation between the new method of revivalism and hymnody. The Awakening thus stimulated the singing-school movement with Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings’ own revival hymnal, Spiritual Songs for Social Worship.
Hatchett, Marion J. “Three Little-Known West Tennessee Four-Shape Shape-Note Tunebooks.” The Hymn 42 (1991):10-16.
Several important four-shape shape-note tunebooks originated in the district of West Tennessee (now known as Middle Tennessee). This describes the three new tunebooks, The St Louis Harmony, The Cumberland Harmony, and The American Harmony and their contents.
Hicks, Roger Wayne. “The First Southern Methodist Hymn Book.” The Hymn 48 (1997):32-35.
The article notes the contribution, collection of this first southern Methodist hymn book and its significance in allowing the Methodists of the North and the South to sing from the same hymn book.
Hulan, Richard H. “The American Revolution in Hymnody.” The Hymn 35 (1984):199-203.
This article describes the camp-meeting singings in the early summer of the first year of the nineteenth century on America’s southwestern frontier, Kentucky and Tennessee. The members were non-denominational but out-numbered by Methodists. Singing technique was desperately required and usually there was rough poetry, a rowdy style of singing, with frequent inclusion of “hippity-skippity” choruses.
Hymn Society of America. “An Interview with Hugh T. McElrath.” The Hymn 42 (1991):10-13.
This is an interview with Hugh T. McElrath at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He has taught hymnology many years and is a fellow of The Hymn Society. He also participates regularly I n the Sacred Harp singing and discusses his involvement.
John, Robert W. “Elm Ives and the Pestalozzian Theory of Music Education.” Journal of Research in Music Education 8 (1960):45-50.
This article introduces Elam Ives, Jr., who supposedly founded in America the musical practice of Pestalozzianism, the dominant philosophy of music education in the United States during much of the nineteenth century. His small book of songs, The Juvenile Lyre, published in 1831 in Boston, is described to be “the firsts school song book published in this country.” The author also lists the six cardinal precepts of the Pestalozzianism method as modified for music education. Ives’ early experiences and writings also had direct influence on such leaders as Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings.
Johnson, H. Earle. “The Need for Research in the History of American Music.” Journal of Research in Music Education 6 (1958):43-61.
This is a lengthy article describing the history of American music, with a section on folk music and one on secular music. It very briefly mentions Lowell Mason and Southern shape-noters in passing.
Kroeger, Karl. “William Billings and the Hymn-Tune.” The Hymn 37 (1986):19-26.
This is another article on Billings’ life with several precepts to his performance written by other psalmodists. There are examples of his text, his publications. The author also notes that Billings chooses more joyous aspects of Christian teachings: salvation, triumph, desire for, and praise of God to use as text for his music.
Kroeger, Karl. “Settings of Isaac Watts’ Psalm 50 by American Composers.” The Hymn 41 (1990):19-26.
This text has been set at least 54 times by 46 different composers of sacred music, or psalmodists. The author discusses its popularity.
Kyme, George H. “An Experiment in Teaching Children to Read Music with Shape Notes.” Journal of Research in Music Education 8 (1960):3-8.
The article focuses on the experiment with the hypothesis that “singing with shape notes will increase the accuracy of pitch and syllable naming and therefore will be reflected in the superiority of students using this method of learning to read music over those who learn by the use of the usual methods.”
Leaver, Robin A. “The Failure that Succeeded: The New Version of Tate and Brady.” The Hymn 48 (1997):22-31.
The 1696 London publication of The New Version of the Psalms of David by Nicholas Brady and Nathan Tate is a collection of congregational songs that made a tremendous impact on individual spirituality and regular worship of congregations for at least 200 years. There are 9 tunes, in four-part open scores, covering 6 meters, and in common meter (four tunes).
Lenti, Vincent A. “Saint Ambrose, the Father of Western Hymnody.” The Hymn 48 (1997):44-48.
St. Ambrose (339-97) was the first person to successfully introduce to the Western Church the practice of singing metrical hymns. This is his life story and the origin of the Western hymn.
Link, Eugene P. “The Republican Harmony (1795) of Nathaniel Billings.” Journal of Research in Music Education 18 (1970):414-18.
This article is about the origins of Nathaniel Billings and his book The Republican Harmony. How he is related to William Billings is not known positively. The author describes the book and its contents of tunes.
Lowens, Irving. Rev. of Camp Meeting Spiritual Folksongs: Legacy of the Great Revival in the West, by Richard H. Hulan. The Hymn 31 (1980):293-95.
This is a review of the PhD dissertation by Richard Hulan from the University of Texas at Austin, 1978. It is a study of all camp-meeting songsters known to have been published between 1800 and 1812.
Mankin, Jim. “Sing to Me of Heaven—The Role of Eternal Life as Reflected in Gospel Songs.” The Hymn 48 (1997):18-22.
Examples of song about Heaven, from Early Songs, to Sunday School hymns and Gospel songs, songs from the era of radio and television, and contemporary music.
Mathews, William S. B. “The ‘Normal’ Music School.” Dwight’s Journal of Music 32 (1872):302-03.
This article describes all the “Normal Musical Institutes” propping up to teach voice with the Lowell Mason’s method of teaching which involves the practice of heavy choruses, for which the quality of the singers gathered and “their enthusiasm gave rare opportunity.” The remainder of their schooling was spent in harmony classes, psalmody practices, etc.
Maultsby, Portia K. “Afro-American Religious Music: A Bibliography and a Catalogue of Gospel Music.” Ethnomusicology 25 (1981):147-48.
The freedom of expression captures the essence of the black culture. The book includes six bibliographical chapters studying black religious music of the New World.
Maultsby, Portia K. “Music of the Northern Independent Black Churches During the Antebellum Period.” Ethnomusicology 19 (1975):401-20.
There is a correlation between music and the two different lifestyles of northern educated and uneducated blacks. The general black influence in rote-singing involved “loud, noisy, quavered, tortured” music with “moans, slides, shrill monotones” for those who attended church with white Protestants.
McKellar, Hugh D. “A History of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, 1922-1997.” The Hymn 48 (1997):8-17.
This article accounts the history of the Hymn Society of America in two parts, 1922-1976 and 1976-97.
Miller, Terry E. “Oral Tradition Psalmody Surviving in England and Scotland.” The Hymn 35 (1984):15-22.
This article describes the lined-out tradition of singing which his an unaccompanied hymnody by certain Appalachian Baptist sects in the United States (eastern Kentucky primarily). Other names for the tradition are “Dr. Watts” or “long meter.”
Music, David W. “Early Hymnists of Tennessee.” The Hymn 31 (1980):246-51.
Tennessee was an important center of hymn writing and publishing. Early hymns and tune writers of Tennessee were mainly unlearned men writing for unlearned frontier population.
Music, David W. “John B. Jackson: Southern Tunebook Complier.” The Hymn 37 (1986):26-30.
Scholars exploring biographies of the compilers and arrangers of shape-note hymnody in southern United States found one compiler from Tennessee who was largely forgotten. This is a biographical research on John B. Jackson.
Music, David W. “A New Source for the Tune ‘All is Well.’” The Hymn 29 (1978):76-82.
Three tunes bear the name, “All is Well.” The earliest source for “All is Well” is a Georgia tunebook, The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia, 1844) attributed to J. T. White. The article shows the written score for the piece in shape-note notation.
Music, David W. “William Moore’s Columbian Harmony (1825).” The Hymn 36 (1985):16-19.
The author and other researchers are looking for a large number of important fasola (shape-note singing) tunebooks to be thoroughly investigated. This is one such book, printed in Cincinnati in 1825.
Perrin, Phil D. “Systems of Scale Notation in Nineteenth-Century American Tune Books.” Journal of Research in Music Education 18 (1970):257-64.
This article gives a detailed study of 347 American tunebooks between 1801-1860 with theoretical introductions. Out of the 347 books, 124 recommended singing with the four syllables used in shaped-note singing to designate the seven-scale degree.
Porter, Ellen Jane. “American Folk Hymns in Three Nineteenth-Century United Brethren Hymnals.” The Hymn 48 (1997):28-29.
Camp-meeting discoveries made by the author’s ancestor led her to write about the history of the folk music and the United Brethrens.
Porter, Ellen. “An Interview with Ellen Jane Lorenz Porter, F.H.S.” The Hymn 48 (1997):23-27.
A pioneering woman of camp-meeting singing, this interview with Ms. Porter explains her life, her passion and how she got interested in spirituals and hymns and her publications.
Porter, Ellen Jane, and John F. Garst. “More Tunes in the Captain Kidd Meter.” The Hymn 30 (1979):252-62.
The meter is an ancient pattern of English origin which goes back in secular songs to at least 1549 and in sacred ones to 1567 Scottish collection of “ballads changed out of profane songs into godly songs.” The pattern became famous in eighteenth century through its use with a ballad celebrating the life of the pirate, William Kidd. Notably, several American hymnals include many tunes in the meter of Captain Kidd that are listed in this article.
Rogers, James A. “Hymns in Periodical Literature.” The Hymn 29 (1978):238-42.
This includes various reviews, one in particular of Buell E. Cobb, Jr.’s “Fasola Folk—Sacred Harp Singing in the South” in Southern Exposure, 1977. It describes the singing and that “To sing as these people sing requires stamina.” Their sessions last from 9 or 10 am to 2 or 3 pm, for a total of about four full hours of singing in the severity of wooden benches. Their voices also reach a volume that bellows and almost deafens, with impulsive and irresistible foot-stomping, and arms swinging to keep hold of the rhythm.
Scholten, James W. “Amzi Chapin: Frontier Singing Master and Folk Hymn composer.” Journal of Research in Music Education 23 (1975).
Amzi and brother Lucius were, citing available evidence, among the first singing masters to tech sacred music west of the Alleghenies. The author tries to bring Amzi Chapin’s importance in history out of the shadows. This is a biographical research.
Smith, James G. “Da Capo.” Choral Journal 16 (1975):25-26.
This include an advertisement for a singing school, an address delivered to the singing-schools, necessary directions for practicing shape-note singing, and best of all, a first-hand account of a young boy’s first day at a singing-school at age 12.
Smith, Timothy Alan. “The Southern Folk-Hymn, 1800-1860: Notes on Performance Practice.” Choral Journal 23.7 (1983):23-29.
This article includes sources of information, theoretical and notational idiosyncracies, pedagogy, care of the voice, ensemble singing, choral balance, tone, and dynamics, enunciation and stress, ornamentation, treatment of tempi for southern folk-hymn performance in awesome detail.
Stanislaw, Richard. “The Part Assignments in Nineteenth-Century Four-Shape Note Books.” Choral Journal 18.6 (1978):14-21.
This details the ranges for the vocal parts, SATB with explanations of the parts and suggestions of practice to switch parts in order to change color in various sections or stanzas of a performance selection. It also “relieves boredom (lifeless singing).”
Stoutamire, Albert L. “Musical Life in Late Eighteenth-Century Richmond.” Journal of Research in Music Education 11 (1963):99-109.
The author believes that a history of music in Richmond is an important part of the history of American music. He starts with the colonial period in describing music “at home, in the theatre, at church, and on other public and social occasions.”
Thayer, Alexander W. “Lowell Mason.” Dwight’s Journal of Music 39 (1879):186-87, 195-96.
This article describes Lowell Mason’s life and works.
Titon, Jeff Todd. “A Song from the Holy Spirit.” Ethnomusicology 24 (1980):223-31.
This article identifies church songs with tribal music cultures where members receive the special power of songs from dreams, visions, and/or trances. The author interviews church members who have thus receive a song, and he describes the supernatural origin of songs in general.
“A Typical Month in the Life of a Sacred Harp Singer.” National Sacred Harp Newsletter 1 (1985).
This would be a great read if I could obtain the National Sacred Harp Newsletters. A typical month would probably be a broader account of the first-hand initialization of the boy shape-note singer.
Van Camp, Leonard. “Choral Balance and the Alto Part in Early American Choral Music.” Choral Journal 15.9 (1975):7-9.
This article deals with the balance in chairs in early America with figures of SATB balance and assignment. The ideal is to have at least half of the choir on the bass part, but it is not always achieved. The article also gives performance suggestions.
Van Camp, Leonard, and John Haberlen. “On Performing the Music of William Billings.” Choral Journal 14.3 (1973):18-22, 14.4 (1973):16-17, 20.
This article is in two parts about Billings and his style in the assignment of singers to the vocal lines of the score, choosing notes, use of instruments, use of soloists, use of meter sings and tempi, tempo in performance, diction and intonation, tone quality, dynamics.
Williams, G. W. “Babylon is Fallen: The Story of A North American Hymn.” The Hymn 44 (1993):31-35.
This is about the “long and curious history” of the hymn, “Babylon is Fallen.” It consists of a Canadian tune with a United States text in one single hymn and was found in the new Sacred Harp (1992).
Williams-Jones, Pearl. “Afro-American Gospel Music: A Crystallization of the Black Aesthetic.” Ethnomusicology 19 (1975):373-85.
The author states, “Black aesthetic can be drawn from Afro-American gospel music to find the history of the American black experience,” and discusses the history of Black Gospel Church and its music.
Anderson, Fletcher Clark. “A History of Choral Music in Birmingham, Alabama.” Diss. U. of Georgia, 1978.
This would be a good dissertation to read in order to compare it with the film, the recordings, and the numerous books already written about the Alabama Sacred Singers.
Bisgrove, M. E. “Sacred Choral Music in the Calvinistic Tradition of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland and France from 1541 to 1600.” Diss. New York University, 1969.
Card, Edith B. “William Walker’s Music Then and Now: A Study of Performance Style.” Diss. Florida State University, 1976.
This is an interesting dissertation because it explains the performance style of William Walker’s Sacred Music.
Cheek, Curtis L. “The Singing School and Shape-Note Tradition: Residuals in Twentieth-Century American Hymnody.” Diss. University of Southern California, 1967.
This would be a very interesting dissertation to read as it talks about how the singing school and shape-note tradition influenced the twentieth-century in American music.
Collins, Willie. “Moaning and Prayer: A Musical and Contextual Analysis of Chants to Accompany Prayer in Two Afro-American Baptist Churches in Southeast Alabama.” Diss. U. of California, Los Angeles.
This dissertation probably elaborates on the eye-witnessed accounts of the Sacred Singer’s “moaning” during “prayer” rather than making musically pleasing sounds.
Crews, Emma Katherine. “A History of Music in Knoxville, Tennessee: 1791-1910." Diss. Florida State University, 1961.
This dissertation is a historical account on one of the more important centers for Sacred Music from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries.
Crouse, D. L. “The Work of Allen D. Carden and Associates in the Shape-Note Tune-Books. The Missouri Harmony, Western Harmony, and United States Harmony.” Diss. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1972.
Davenport, Linda Gilbert. “Divine Song on the Northeast Frontier: Maine’s Sacred Tunebooks, 1800-1830.” Diss. U of Colorado-Boulder, 1996.
This dissertation is “a study of 18 tunebooks, their compilers, and related musical, historical, and social features.” Only eleven tunes are presented in modern notation.
Ellington, Charles Linwood. “The Sacred Harp Tradition of the South: Its Origins and Evolution.” Diss. Florida State University, 1970.
This dissertation defines in its own way the history and tradition of Southern Sacred Harp Singing and its evolution.
Engelke, Hans. “A Study of Ornaments in American Tune-Books: 1760-1800.” Diss. University of Southern California, 1960.
Herman, Janet. “Sacred Harp Singing in California: Genre, Performance, Feeling.” Diss. University of California, Los Angeles, 1997.
This dissertation remarkably addresses Sacred Harp music on the west coast of the United States. It would be interesting to note the similarities and differences in history and development.
Hulan, Richard. “Camp Meeting Spiritual Folksongs: Legacy of the Great Revival in the West.” Diss. U of Texas, 1978.
This is a PhD dissertation by Richard Hulan from the University of Texas at Austin, 1978. It is a study of all the camp-meeting songsters known to have been published between 1800 and 1812
Loessel, Earl Oliver. “The Use of Character Notes and Other Unorthodox Notations in Teaching the Reading of Music in Northern United States During the Nineteenth Century.” Diss. University of Michigan, 1959.
This also would be a good dissertation if it has numerous diagrams on how the character notes and notation changed throughout the nineteenth century.
O’Brien, James Patrick. “An Experimental Study of the Use of Shape Notes in Developing Sight Singing.” Diss. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1969.
This is a good dissertation in noting a function for Shaped-Note Singing besides sacred music and praising God.
Stanislaw, Richard J. “Choral Performance Practice in the Four-Shape Literature of American Frontier Singing Schools.” Diss. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1976.
This is a dissertation that will enlighten the reader on performance styles for shaped-note singing. The topic is relevant to my research on finding a “successful” performance for shaped-note singing.
Weiss, Joanne Grayeski. “The Relationship Between the ‘Great Awakening’ and the Transition from Psalmody to Hymnody in the New England Colonies.” Diss. Ball State University, 1988.
This deals with the Great Awakening period and revivalism which helped shaped sacred music with Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings in the New England Colonies.
Williams, Grier Moffatt. “A History of Music in Jacksonville, Florida, from 1822-1922.” Diss. Florida State University, 1961.
It would be interesting to see how Shaped-Note Music developed in Florida as there are not as much written about the Sacred Harp tradition below Georgia and Alabama.
Young, Robert H. “The History of Baptist Hymnody in England from 1612 to 1800.” Diss. University of Southern California, 1959.
This dissertation is another historical research on Baptist Hymnody, except it goes back further in time to the Seventeenth Century in England.
The Alabama Sacred Harp Convention. White Spirituals from The Sacred Harp. New World Records, 1977.
The Alabama Sacred Harp members sing with much gusto, varying pitches and volumes. They are definitely not interested in a perfect performance, but rather a performance that praises God. A lot of the singing resembles the lining-out tradition, where a leader leads the group, and as soon as they recognize the tune, they join in. The choruses are the loudest and rowdiest. One particular soprano really belts out above everyone and is very out of tune.
Long Island Traditional Music Association. Ed. Sherri Guthrie and Martha Waide. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://www.litma.org/shapednote.html >.
This page is for the LITMA, Long Island Traditional Music Association, for Shaped-Note/Sacred Harp Singing. I initially thought that I could visit a Shaped-Note singing group in the city, but this group was the nearest I've found so far.
Marie, Jane. “Shape Note Singing.” Shapenote. Ed. Nancy Kamp. 2002. greenlightWRITE.com. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://greenlightwrite.com/shapenote.htm >.
This page starts off with an entry in the 2001 minutes for the 7th Annual Hoboken, Georgia, All-Day Sacred Harp Sing in March of 2002. There are also pictures of the shaped-note score and a brief history.
MPR: Shaped Note Singing. Ed. Stephen Smith. 1996. Minnesota Public Radio. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://news.mpr.org/features/199612/01_smiths_shapenote >.
This page is from the Minnesota Public Radio which details a shaped-note singing group's meeting, reported by Stephen Smith. It is a featured story with three RealAudio song files one can download, a couple of pictures of how shaped-note singers arrange their chairs, and a detailed description of the featured broadcast.
White, B.F. “The Sacred Harp, A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Odes, and Anthems, Selected from the Most Eminent Authors, 1860 Edition.” Ed. Digital Sources Center, MSU. 2001. Michigan State University. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://digital.lib.msu.edu/ssb/image.cfm?TitleNo=172&image=001 >.
This page is, amazingly, page for page, of The Sacred Harp, "A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Odes, and Anthems, Selected from the Most Eminent Authors..." The online book is so real, you can actually see the backside (probably due to the thin pages).
Sacred Harp Singers. Dir. Mark Brice and Chris Petry. Beaconsfield, U.K: National Film and Television School, 1984.
The film is about two Sacred Harp Singers from Sand Mountain, Alabama, and their daily farm-work life and social activities.
Shape Note Historical Background. Ed. F. Ishmael J. M. Stefanov-Wagner. 1998 Department of MIT. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://web.mit.edu/user/i/j/ijs/www/sn/sn-hist.html >.
Another historical page on shaped notes although this page has extensive pictures of the musical notation and how the four shaped-notes, fa, so, la, mi, developed from solfege.
A Short Shaped-Note Singing History. Ed. Keith Willard. 13 Dec. 2002 < http://fasola.org/introduction/short_history.html >.
This page is a brief history of how the early singing school in the English parish countryside first developed the four-shape notational system by Little and Smith in 1801. It is mostly an oral tradition that is still preserved predominantly by rural southerners.
Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers. The Colored Sacred Harp. New World Records, 1993.
Similar to the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers, the Wiregrass Sacred Harp also has the same rough quality, preferring enthusiasm to perfection. The members do not all sing uniformly, and before the music starts, they praise God for the music.