Category: Hamrick on The Sacred Harp
Raymond Coooper Hamrick’s writings on Sacred Harp’s history and practices.
The Twentieth Century Looks at William Billings
A note from the editor: When Raymond C. Hamrick returned to Sacred Harp singing after World War II he was immediately drawn to the music of the eighteenth-century New England composer, William Billings. Billings also piqued Hamrick’s scholarly curiosity as this article—first published in The Harpeth Valley Sacred Harp News 1, no. (May 7, 1965)—demonstrates.…
The Curious History of Shape-Notes
A note from the editor: In this essay, first published in The Harpeth Valley Sacred Harp News 2, no. 4 (September 20, 1965), Hamrick places shape-notes in the context of American vocal music history, from their advent in the colonial era through the twentieth century. Hamrick’s evocative retelling of this story capitalizes on what at the…
The Matter of Tempo in The Sacred Harp
A note from the editor: A watch and clock repairman and jeweler by trade, Raymond C. Hamrick had an excellent sense of time. In combination with his inquisitive approach to the tradition he loved so much, it’s little surprise that “the question of proper tempo in Sacred Harp music” so aroused his curiosity. In this…
Sojourn in the South: Billings Among the Shape-Noters
A note from the editor: Raymond C. Hamrick contributed this article to a 1996 special issue of the Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning 7, no. 1, devoted to eighteenth-century New England composer William Billings. In an April 2014 interview, Hamrick recalled that the journal’s associate editor, Jonathan Bellman, a professor at the University…
The “Ins” and “Outs” of Revision
A note from the editor: Raymond C. Hamrick wrote this previously unpublished article on the revision and publication of The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition in August of 1995. He hoped that the essay—the first on the revision of any edition of The Sacred Harp written by a music committee member—could be useful to members of…
“My Interest Was in the Background of the Music”: Raymond C. Hamrick and Alan Lomax in Conversation
Editor’s Note: Alan Lomax interviewed Raymond C. Hamrick during a break in 1982 June memorial singing at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in Bremen, Georgia. An outspoken and prolific folklorist, Lomax attended the convention with a large crew to record the singing and interview prominent participants for his acclaimed 1982–83 PBS series American Patchwork. Never…
