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COMPOSITIONS SHAPED BY COMMUNITY

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Gordon, Larry, and Anthony G. Barrand, eds. Northern Harmony. Fourth ed. (Northern Har-
mony Publishing Company, 1998). Used copies of this collection can be found online.

The first edition of Northern Harmony, which was issued in 1979, collected old tunes by Vermont composers.
Later editions added new compositions by active singers. In the current edition, more than one-third of the
tunes are new. Contemporary composers are introduced with a biographical sketch.

Hamrick, Raymond C. The Georgian Harmony. Second ed. (Raymond C. Hamrick, 2012).
Purchase at one of the four annual singings in Georgia that are dedicated to its use.
Raymond C. Hamrick was one of the great twentieth-century shape-note tune writers. This collection
brings together several hundred of his compositions, written over the course of the past half-century.

Hunter, Daniel L., et al., The Valley Pocket Harmonist (The Shenandoah Harmony Publishing
Company, 2024). Purchase from The Shenandoah Harmony Publishing Company.
This collection, subtitled “A Supplement to The Shenandoah Harmony,” brings together historical and new
compositions/arrangements in approximately equal measure. Central to the collection are thirty-four pre-
viously unpublished tunes by Ohio composer John Bayer Jr. (1954-2016).

Walker, William, John Deason, and O. A. Parris, eds. The Christian Harmony: 2010 Edition
(Christian Harmony Music Company, 2010). Purchase from Christian Harmony Music Com-
pany.

The most recent edition of The Christian Harmony (1866) does not constitute a thorough revision, but it does
include new tunes by singers Lawrence Beveridge, Raymond C. Hamrick, John Plunkett, John Newton
Merritt, and Bill Hollingsworth, all of which are located near the back of the book.

White, Benjamin Franklin, and Elisha James King, eds. The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition (Sacred
Harp Publishing Company, 1991). Purchase from Sacred Harp Publishing Company.

This is the most used shape-note tunebook. The 1991 revision incorporated new compositions by a range
of active singers. The next revision, scheduled for release in September 2025, is expected to contain dozens
of new compositions.

White, Benjamin Franklin, and Wilson Marion Cooper, eds. The Sacred Harp: Revised Coo-
per Edition (The Sacred Harp Book Company, 2012). Purchase from The Sacred Harp Book
Company.

The most recent Cooper edition of The Sacred Harp contains recent compositions by twelve singers.

22 CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7