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WRITING MUSIC IN THE SACRED HARP TRADITION

39 Wilson Marion Cooper, The Sacred Harp, Cooper Edition, 2012 48 Composer names, years, and other identifying information
(Samson, AL: The Sacred Harp Book Company, 2012). were redacted during the public review process.
40 Esther M. Morgan-Ellis, Abigail C. Cannon, Lily M. Ham- 49 David Ivey, et al., “Revision—Music Committee Status
mond, and Moriah Miller, “Negotiated Leadership in Report” (Sacred Harp Publishing Company, October
Sacred Harp Singing” (submitted for publication). 2024), http://originalsacredharp.com/wp-content/
41 P. Dan Brittain, interview. uploads/2024/10/Revision-Music-Committee-Status-
42 William Hauser, The Hesperian Harp (S.C. Collins, 1874), Report-2024-10-05.pdf
xviii. 50 Raymond C. Hamrick, “The Composer’s Debt to Shape-
43 Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha James King, The Sacred Notes” (Sacred Harp Publishing Company, December
Harp, 7. 31, 2016), https://originalsacredharp.com/2016/12/31/
44 P. Dan Brittain, interview. the-composers-debt-to-shape-notes/; George H. Kyme,
45 Jesse P. Karlsberg, “Sacred Harp, ‘Poland Style’,” South- “An Experiment in Teaching Children to Read Music
ern Spaces, February 27, 2013, https://southernspaces. with Shape Notes,” Journal of Research in Music Education
org/2013/sacred-harp-poland-style/ 8, no. 1 (1960): 8.
46 Rachel Wells Hall, interview. 51 Esther M. Morgan-Ellis, et al., “Negotiated Leadership in
47 Rachel Wells Hall, “Philadelphia, Birthplace of the Shapes Sacred Harp Singing.”
and Center of Shape-Note Publishing” (Sacred Harp
Publishing Company, September 1, 2017),
https://originalsacredharp.com.

Appendix:
Sources for New Shape-Note Repertoire
All shape-note collections that have been compiled or revised in recent decades include new compositions
by members of the singing community. Below is an annotated list of prominent collections, including infor-
mation on how to procure each tunebook.

Carden, Allen D., ed. The Missouri Harmony: 2005 Edition. Second ed. (Missouri Historical
Society Press, 2005). Purchase from University of Chicago Press.

When the publication committee responsible for revising The Missouri Harmony (1820) put out a call for new
compositions, they received fifty-three submissions from tunesmiths in eight U. S. states, Canada, and En-
gland. A few dozen tunes by singers P. Dan Brittain, Judy Hauff, Ted Johnson, John Bayer, Dan Gibbons,
James Solheim, and others were added to the 2005 revision.

Dakan, Myles Louis, et al., The Shenandoah Harmony (The Shenandoah Harmony Publishing
Company, 2012). Purchase from The Shenandoah Harmony Publishing Company.
This compilation consists mostly of old songs taken from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century tunebooks,
but it also contains recent compositions by a wide range of contemporary composers.

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CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7 21