Category: Of Harmony and Composition
Articles unpacking the inner workings of Sacred Harp songs.
Bound Together: What Makes an Effective Pairing of Text and Tune
In a skillfully composed [nineteenth-century American] composition, the whole acquired a larger significance not foreseeable by merely reading the words or examining the air. —Nicholas E. Tawa Why do the text and tune of certain Sacred Harp songs go so well together? How do I look for poetry to go with a particular air or melody?…
The “Stacked Fourths” Chord: A Canonical Discord in The Sacred Harp
The rudiments of The Sacred Harp and other shape-note tunebooks have traditionally categorized the intervals between any two degrees of the scale, or dyads, as either concords, “which produce harmony when sounded together,” or discords, “which, when sounded together, produce a disagreeable sound to the ear.” The concords were fifths and octaves (or unisons), which…
Help Me to Sing: Raymond Hamrick as Composer and Teacher
Raymond Hamrick was a master craftsman. For close to eight decades, he worked as a jeweler repairing watches at Andersen’s Jewelers. For most of those years, he also used this eye for detail to craft and teach the art of Sacred Harp singing. It was this willingness to instruct that first brought me into contact…
The Variety of Influence: Forms of Craftsmanship in the 1960 Edition
Introduction The Original Sacred Harp: Denson Revision, 1960 Edition, produced by an august music committee consisting of A. M. Cagle (chairman), H. N. McGraw, T. B. McGraw, Elmer Kitchens, Hugh McGraw, and Ruth Denson Edwards and edited by Owel Denson, is remembered today partly as the subject of extramusical anecdotes. Singers were displeased to find…
