Category: Harpeth Valley News
Featured articles from past issues of the Harpeth Valley Sacred Harp News the oldest and longest continuously published Sacred Harp newsletter.
I Remember: Ruth Denson Edwards on Her Sacred Harp Childhood
A note from the editor: In this essay, “Queen of The Sacred Harp,” Ruth Denson Edwards shares memories of her musical childhood home. Just about every day somewhere in the world Sacred Harp singers find joy and spiritual fulfillment singing songs written by the Denson family members who gathered around a big log fire to…
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…
Some Dos and Don’ts for Sacred Harp Singers
A note from the editor: Nashville Sacred Harp singer and aptly-named Presbyterian minister Priestley Miller wrote this pithy collection of Sacred Harp “dos and don’ts” in 1965. His admonitions retain their currency fifty years later. Contemporary singers too need the occasional reminder that our singing style has a proud history but is also of “the…
