A Companion to the New Harp of Columbia


Book Description

"The shape-note tradition first flourished in the small towns and rural areas of early America. Church-sponsored "singing schools" taught a form of musical notation in which the notes were assigned different shapes to indicate variations in pitch; this method worked well with congregants who had little knowledge of standard musical notation. Today many enthusiasts carry on the shape-note tradition, and The New Harp of Columbia (recently published in a "restored edition" by the University of Tennessee Press) is one of five shape-note singing-manuals still in use."--Jacket.




Church Music in America, 1620-2000


Book Description

The history of American church music is a particularly fascinating and challenging subject, if for no other reason than because of the variety of diverse religious groups that have immigrated and movements that have sprung up in American. Indeed, for the first time in modern history-possibly the only time since the rule of medieval Iberia under the Moors-different faiths have co-existed here with a measure of peace- sometimes ill-humored, occasionally hostile, but more often amicable or at least tolerant-influencing and even weaving their traditions into the fabric of one another's worship practices even as they competed for converts in the free market of American religion. This overview traces the musical practices of several of those groups from their arrival on these shores up to the present, and the way in which those practices and traditions influenced each other, leading to the diverse and multi-hued pattern that is American church music at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The tone is non-technical; there are no musical examples, and the musical descriptions are clear and concise. In short, it is a book for interested laymen as well as professional church musicians, for pastors and seminarians as well as students of American religious culture and its history.




Original Sacred Harp


Book Description




The Makers of the Sacred Harp


Book Description

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.




Collected Works


Book Description




Sacred Song


Book Description

Sacred Song is a modern, Catholic, three-year, hymnal that easily supports congregational singing throughout the liturgical year. It contains over 950 liturgical music compositions--classic, contemporary, chant, and traditional. Sacred Song includes: the Order of Mass with ICEL Chants--accompaniment composed by Anthony Ruff, OSB; the complete Psallite collection of over 290 liturgical antiphons inspired by the entrance, responsorial, and Communion songs for each Sunday and solemnity of all three years of the liturgical cycle; responsorial psalm antiphons from the Basilica Psalter; new music for Christian initiation, weddings, and funerals from Psallite; classic Gregorian chant music, including over 30 hymns/chants in Latin, most with English translations (including the Marian antiphons), plus the entire Latin chant Mass Iubilate Deo; a wide variety of hymns and songs reflecting the breadth of the Catholic tradition--from classic hymns to contemporary music from GIA Publications, Hope Publishing, World Library Publications, Oregon Catholic Press, Selah Publishing, Liturgical Press, Oxford University Press, and more. Sacred Song features the following Mass settings: The Psallite Mass: At the Table of the Lord by the Collegeville Composers Group Mass in Honor of Saint Benedict by Robert LeBlanc Mass in A Minor by Frederick Strassburger An Austrian Mass by Michael Haydn, arr. by Anthony Ruff, OSB Land of Rest Acclamations by Richard Proulx Missa Pacem by L. Randolph Babin Mass in Honor of Saint Paul by Kevin Christopher Vogt Mass in Honor of Saint Cecilia by David Hurd Mass in Honor of Saint Dominic by Matthew S. Still Acclamations from Mass of Creation by Marty Haugen The entire Latin chant Mass Missa Iubilate Deo, Vatican Edition