Journal issue: Vol. 6, No. 2
Introducing Vol. 6, No. 2 of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter
The thirteenth issue of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter shares Sacred Harp’s long history in Mississippi as well as the story of its more recent arrival in Illinois. It features tributes to departed friends and offers new insights on Sacred Harp harmony and how songs’ music and texts work together. Our issue begins with…
Shape-Note Singing in Mississippi: A Preliminary History
While studies of Sacred Harp singing have concentrated on Georgia, Alabama, and Texas, the shape-note traditions of Mississippi have remained comparatively obscure. In 1933, George Pullen Jackson wrote, “I have not learned that there is in Mississippi any comprehensive state Sacred Harp organization.” He also suggested that “the rarity of singers from that state attending…
Building Community Harmony: Thirty-Three Years of Illinois State Sacred Harp Conventions
“I am going to bring nine people to Paxton, Illinois to organize a state convention. Saturday, May 25 is the date. St. Louis will be next.” That’s what Hugh McGraw, executive secretary of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, wrote on a note tucked in a shipment of books to St. Louis singers in 1984. Meanwhile,…
Remembering Toney Smith: Singer, Leader, Teacher, Organizer, Reviser, and Encourager
Editors’ note: Toney Smith, a member of the seven-person music committee that revised The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition, received the Sacred Harp Publishing Company’s posthumous citation in 2017. In this tribute, David Ivey, who served with Toney Smith on the 1991 Edition music committee, attests to the many ways Smith contributed to Sacred Harp singing in his West Alabama region and…
B. M. Smith: A Loving, Caring Spirit and Front Bench Stalwart
Micah 6:8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.And what does the Lord require of you?To act justly and to love mercyAnd to walk humbly with your God. B. M. Smith of Silver Creek, Georgia, personified this Bible verse. He was a man who willingly accepted the responsibilities life brought him, and who gave…
In Memory of Earlis McGraw, July 27, 1935–June 8, 2016
Editor’s Note: United Kingdom–based singer Rebecca Over fell in love with the songs of the McGraw family soon after she began singing Sacred Harp in 2009. An avid researcher, Rebecca got to know living McGraws such as Earlis during trips to the United States following the footsteps of singers and composers from past generations such…
What I’ve Learned from My Sacred Harp Elders
My love of Sacred Harp began with my grandfather, Jim Fields, who took me to a singing school in 1958, when I was ten years old. H. N. “Bud” McGraw was the teacher. I was immediately in love with the music, the warmth, and the welcoming hugs for a little newcomer. Some of the other…
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…
Notes on Repairing Songbooks
The connection between a shape note singer and their songbook is always significant. Our songbooks are charged with love and memories and they are our constant companions; as with dogs their condition tells us a lot about their owner. I am lucky to have worked for a decade in the conservation studio of the London…
