Page Use and Removed Song Statistics for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

We are introducing 113 new songs to The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition without adding a single page to the book! These statistics show how we accomplished that through efficiencies in typesetting and page layout—in addition to removing some of our lesser-used songs. We will be posting a list of the songs removed soon.

The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition New Song Stats.

Information about page use and songs removed in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition.

  • 550 total song pages in the 2025 Edition (+2 more pages of songs over the 1991 Edition).
  • 590 total songs in the 2025 Edition (+6.5% increase from the 1991 Edition).
  • 101 total pages for new songs in the 2025 Edition:
    • 2 pages recovered through front/back matter efficiency,
    • 13 pages recovered through engraving efficiency,
    • 86 pages of songs removed.
  • 113 new songs are in the 2025 Edition (new songs comprise 19% of book).
  • 60 new songs were in the 1991 Edition (new songs comprised 11% of book).
  • 77 songs removed from the 1991 Edition to make the 2025 Edition (14%).
  • 45 songs removed from the 1971 Edition to make the 1991 Edition (8%).
  • The 77 songs removed to create the 2025 Edition represent just 3% of all lessons sung from the 1991 Edition.

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In Memoriam: Mike Hinton

Collins durations of notes and rests

Mike Hinton, who served as president of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company from 2002–25.

Mike Hinton, president of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, passed away on July 18, 2025. Mike had served as president since 2002. A grandson of T. J. Denson, he was a direct link to the family that played an integral role in founding the Publishing Company and issuing the first “Denson” revision of the Sacred Harp in 1936.

Mike was an effective leader with extensive experience and organizational insight. He brought us together in pursuit of ambitious goals and he helped us achieve them with efficiency and excellence. As he traveled widely to singings, he was an outstanding representative of the Publishing Company and the traditions of Sacred Harp singing. We will miss his commitment, his professionalism, and his dignified manner. He was instrumental in supporting the revision of “The Sacred Harp” and we sincerely regret that he will not be with us in person as we launch the new book this September.

Mike shared memories and family stories in an article he wrote for the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter in 2013, “Aunt Ruth’s Bible,” in which he described his aunt Ruth Denson Edwards as a “one of a kind person.” We would say exactly the same about Mike.

You can read Mike’s obituary here. The Hinton family will be hosting a Celebration of Life Service for Mike on Saturday, October 4, 2025, at 10:00 at Coker Methodist Church, 231 E. North Loop Rd., 78216, in San Antonio, Texas. All singers, from near and far, are invited to attend.

Collins durations of notes and rests

Left: Mike Hinton with cousins Amanda Denson Brady and Richard Mauldin. Photo by Ginnie Ely.
Center: Mike Hinton with his aunt Ruth Denson Edwards in Gettysburg, PA, c. 1950.
Right: Mike Hinton at the All-California Convention, 2004. Photo by Ginnie Ely.

Collins durations of notes and rests

Mike Hinton at the All-California Convention, 2004. Photo by Ginnie Ely.

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Songs Added to The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

The Revision-Music Committee is pleased to announce the 113 songs that are newly added in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition. These compositions span more than two centuries and represent 78 different composers and sources (including 49 living composers). We want to thank the authors of these compositions, those who submitted them for consideration, and the numerous singers who lent their voices to help us evaluate them. We also sincerely thank the composers whose work was not selected for your talents, efforts, and devotion to Sacred Harp singing. We are excited to share these newly-added tunes with you in September and we hope you look forward to discovering some new favorites!

  • Brad Bahler: PLEVNA (2013)
  • Kevin Laurence Barrans: BAINBRIDGE ISLAND (2013)
  • Lauren R. Bock: EXETER (2009), NASSAU (2010), WARSAW (2018)
  • Leonard P. Breedlove: PROSPERITY (1850)
  • Steven Brett: WINDLESHAM (2016), SOUTHMINSTER (2017)
  • P. Dan Brittain: IOWA (2002)
  • J. M. Brown; J. C. Brown: THE BLIND GIRL (1908)
  • Helen Brown: PARWICH (2002)
  • Neely Bruce: MILLBROOK (1989)
  • José R. Camacho-Cerna: LOWNDES (2021)
  • Aldo Thomas Ceresa: STANTON (2007), MORENO (2008), NEW YORK (2012)
  • Henry F. Chandler: LISBON (1854)
  • William Cleary: MOURNFUL JOY (2018)
  • Myles Louis Dakan: SIMENA (2014)
  • Angharad Davis: RADIANCE (2014)
  • Ananias Davisson: IMANDRA (1820)
  • J. M. Day: RUSSELL (1850)
  • Andy Ditzler: GRANADA (2018)
  • Lewis Edson: CANAAN (1801)
  • Victoria Elliott: EASTON (2015), KINGSWOOD (2016)
  • Tim Eriksen: BUFFAM FALLS (2025)
  • Frédéric Eymard: CHANDESSE (2020)
  • Mary Kitchens Gardner: YOUTHFUL BLESSINGS (1954)
  • T. D. George: SOUL’S DELIGHT (2015), WILLKIE (2018), HARRISON (2022), PASTURES GREEN (2022)
  • Timothy R. Gilmore: REBEKAH (1990)
  • Rachel W. Hall: MANATAWNY (2023), WOODLANDS (2024)
  • Raymond C. Hamrick: HUMILITY (2000), JOHN 3:37 (2007), SLEEPERS AWAKE! (2007)
  • William Hauser: GAINES (1848)
  • R. Herron: STAR IN THE EAST (1826)
  • Matthew Hinton; Mark T. Godfrey: CLAYTON (2023)
  • John T. Hocutt: EAGLES’ WINGS (1990)
  • Israel Holdroyd: ROCHESTER (1722)
  • Katie Huffman: THY STRENGTH (2016)
  • Kelsey Sunderland Ivey: PENN (2008)
  • Thomas A. Ivey: BLESSED ROAD (2010)
  • Stephen Jenks: SOMERS (1800)
  • Jesse P. Karlsberg: HAMRICK (2006), FAREWELL BRETHREN (2010), THOMASTON (2012), TREMBLING SPIRIT (2018), EPHESUS (2019), SEILER (2019)
  • E. L. King: THE LOST CITY (1850)
  • Oliver King: SUFFIELD (1779)
  • Isaac Lloyd: GUM POND (2017)
  • James C. Lowry: CONVERSE (1820)
  • Richard Mayers: LOVELY SOCIAL BAND (2022)
  • John G. McCurry: HEAVENLY MEETING (1846)
  • Deidra Montgomery: MECHANICVILLE (2010)
  • Keillor Mose: TORRINGTON (2017), ENOCH (2019), MILTON (2019), UNRATH (2021), CHAMBERSBURG (2023), MINK HOLLOW (2023)
  • The Musical Instructor: PETERBOROUGH (1803)
  • Matthew Parkinson: GWEHELOG (2015), HE HATH SAVED US (2016)
  • O. A. Parris: GOD’S HELPING HAND (1954)
  • Barry Parsons: RED SANDS (2018)
  • Barrett Patton: TIDES OF LOVE (2020)
  • Daniel Read: LISBON (1785), DEVOTION (1787)
  • H. S. Rees: TROUBLES OVER (1870)
  • Peter Schinske: GOLDEN GARDENS (2022)
  • David Smead: OAKLAND (2017)
  • Stanley Smith: CHOCTAWHATCHEE (1982)
  • Jenny Solheim: MOONLIGHT (2021), INSPIRATION (2023)
  • The Southern Harmony: SUPPLICATION (1835), NEW FAREWELL (1835)
  • The Southern Harmony; Amzi Chapin: ROCKBRIDGE (1847)
  • Jacob E. Stebly: ATA (2017)
  • Allison Blake Steel: NIGHT SONG (2009), THE OLD GRAVEYARD (2019), NORTHAMPTON (2019), HOLBROOK (2021), HELEN HILLS HILLS (2021)
  • David Warren Steel: HURRICANE CREEK (2012)
  • Robert Stoddard: CUNNINGHAM (2011)
  • Ed Thacker: MIDNIGHT HOUR (2009)
  • Dan Thoma: MOREL (2007)
  • Fynnian Titford-Mock; Barry Parsons: HOOPER (2017)
  • Fynnian Titford-Mock: BREMEN (2025)
  • Samuel Turner: NEWBURY (2022)
  • Leah Velleman: BECKET (2018), HALL (2019), ETERNAL AGES (2019)
  • J. D. Wall: ENDLESS PRAISE (1935)
  • Micah John Walter: REVERE (2016), BOUNDLESS GRACE (2019)
  • A. R. Walton: JUST FOR A DAY (1909)
  • Thomas Ward: KEDAR (2017)
  • Elisha West: EVENING HYMN (1802)
  • Cory Winters: SPRINGDALE (2019)
  • David B. Wright: EVERY GRACE (1999), AND JESUS CRUCIFIED (2000), WELLS SECOND (2001), SCHWAB (2014)
  • Rebecca Wright: BALM IN GILEAD (2018)
  • Songs of Zion: PORTSMOUTH (1821)
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Newly Added Song Statistics for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Here are some overall statistics about the 113 songs that will be coming into The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition. Hope this preview is exciting—but stay tuned as we get ready to reveal the identity of all 113 newly-added tunes!

The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition New Song Stats.

Information about the 113 new songs added to The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition.

  • 113 songs added of 1,155 songs submitted.
  • 10% of songs submitted were selected.
  • Songs sung at 13 test singings in 5 U.S. states and 3 countries.
  • 78 composers and sources of new songs.
  • 49 living composers.
  • 72% of new songs are by living composers.
  • 18 U.S. states represented (200% increase from 1991 edition).
  • 5 countries represented (400% increase from 1991 edition).
  • 51% of new songs are major and 49% are minor. In the 1991 edition, 72% are major and 28% are minor. In the 2025 edition, 67% are major and 33% are minor, a 5% shift toward minor.
  • New songs by era: 1700s: 4; 1800s: 18; 1900s: 10; 2000s: 81.
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Register Now for the “Revising The Sacred Harp” Symposium

Join us at an all-day symposium, “Revising The Sacred Harp,” on Friday, Sept. 12. Please purchase your ticket in advance to secure your spot. The location of the symposium is TBA. The new location be near the original planned location at Emory University.

The symposium will feature presentations on all aspects of the new revision of The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition, which will be launched at the United Sacred Harp Musical Association convention on Saturday and Sunday, September 13–14 at The Foundry at Puritan Mill in Atlanta.

Presenters will include members of the Revision-Music Committee, contributors to the book’s design and production, attributions, and text research teams, and composers whose songs are included in the new revision. This will also be your first opportunity to get your personal copy of The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition (please note that multi-copy and case orders will be available at the United Convention on Saturday–Sunday). The symposium is open to the public. Tickets cost $25 to help us cover the cost of the provided lunch and coffee breaks.

Doors will open at 8am for check-in and book distribution and the symposium will start with a plenary session led by Revision Music-Committee Chairman David Ivey. Participants will have the option to attend multiple concurrent sessions during the day with a break for a provided lunch at noon. We will close with a session of singing from the new book concluding at 5pm.

For a complete schedule and additional details, please see our page on Eventbrite. Parking and accessibility information will be forthcoming once we have finalized a location. Please direct any questions to united@sacredharp.com.

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Introducing the Page Design of The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Ready for a sneak peek at the new page design for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition? Here is a selection of pages including plain and fuging tunes, a two-song page, and a couple of extra-challenging typesetting examples, including 377, “Eternal Praise,” and 419, “Melancholy Day.”

Page 31 in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Creating a balanced two-song page requires careful spacing of titles, scriptures, attributions, music, and verses, as demonstrated in this page featuring “Ninety-Third Psalm” (31t) and “Webster” (31b).

Our team of designers created a legible, balanced, and inviting page layout that is steeped in history yet still feels contemporary. We wanted every page to be both visually appealing and easy to read, so we went to great lengths to carefully position every element on every page for maximum legibility and visual harmony.

We chose text typefaces with a similar focus on tradition and readability. The font used for the song titles, text meters, and page numbers is “Optima,” a mid-twentieth century typeface inspired by Renaissance inscriptions. Similar fonts were chosen for covers of some printings of the 1936 and 1960 editions of The Sacred Harp for their classical elegance. For the song texts, scriptures, and attributions, we chose a typeface called “Miller,” inspired by the Scotch Roman style that originated in Scotland around 1800 and quickly became popular in American newspapers and magazines because it is easily legible even at small font sizes. If it looks like a natural fit for our tunebook, that might be because it’s the same style that was used in nineteenth-century editions of The Sacred Harp, beginning with the first edition in 1844.

Page 141 in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

We wanted our page design to look good not just for tightly-packed songs, but on pages with plenty of space. “Complainer” (141) shows how the design “breathes” on a page with ample space yet remains visually consistent with denser pages like 377 below.

Page 228 in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Our music engravers took tremendous care with each aspect of the engraving of songs. “Marlborough” (228) illustrates the handsome look of slurs and ties in the new edition. The design of these glyphs is inspired by nineteenth-century editions of The Sacred Harp but has the flexibility to handle a wide range of angles and widths.

Using our new music and text typefaces in our carefully calibrated page layout, we were able to fit “Melancholy Day” and several other formerly one-and-a-half-page tunes onto a single page. We hope you won’t miss the page turn! We want to thank our design team for giving us a beautiful new look that makes our book even easier to read while keeping in harmony with Sacred Harp tradition.

Page 377 in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Every aspect of our page design is tailored to maximize legibility and visual harmony in “tight” songs like “Eternal Praise” (377).

Page 419 in The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Our talented designers were able to condense some songs without sacrificing legibility, making space for new songs and, in the case of “Melancholy Day” (419), removing an irksome page turn.

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Pricing for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

The Sacred Harp Publishing Company is pleased to announce that the price for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition will be $20 per book in the United States and £20 in the United Kingdom when it debuts in September 2025. We will also offer a reduced rate of $10/£10 for loaner books for local singing groups.

Books will be available for sale at the United Convention (individually and in cases of 8). To help with planning, please let us know ahead of time if you would like to pick up multiple boxes by contacting Richard Ivey at iveyria@gmail.com. Books will also be available for sale at the United Kingdom Sacred Harp Convention.

In addition, we will be making shipments of cases of books to regional and international singing communities. Stay tuned for more details as we work out the logistics of international shipping and pricing outside the US/UK and watch for an announcement closer to the release date when we will begin taking orders online. Individual books ordered online will ship with a nominal shipping cost; however we will be selling cases of 8 for $160 including domestic shipping within the United States. Of course, the best way to get your new copy will be to come to Atlanta for the book launch at the United Convention in September! We hope to see you there!

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Introducing “Collins,” a New Shape-Note Music Typeface for The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition

Did you know that The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition will feature a brand new, bespoke music font? The Sacred Harp Publishing Company commissioned music type designer Jeff Kellem to develop a font with noteheads in every shape and duration along with clefs, rests, and numerous other musical symbols.

Collins durations of notes and rests

A diagram of the durations of notes using each of the four shapes and rests featuring the “Collins” music typeface.

Kellem worked with a team of Sacred Harp singers with expertise in music typesetting and design to strike a perfect balance between tradition, readability, and elegance, marking the first time in our tunebook’s history that we as singers have been able to make our book and our notes look exactly the way we want. Each glyph was carefully designed to evoke the aesthetic of historical tunebooks while embracing the advantages of contemporary digital typesetting and printing. The notes are clear and easily distinguishable even in the densest pages of music—you’re going to be amazed when you see “Bear Creek” (p. 269)!

Collins music examples

Examples of music from The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition set using the “Collins” typeface.

Collins music examples

Major triads set in the “Collins” font.

The new music typeface is named “Collins” in honor of the T. K. & P. G. Collins printing firm of Philadelphia who produced the first edition of The Sacred Harp in 1844. The Sacred Harp Publishing Company has decided to make the typeface available for free to Sacred Harp singers soon after the release of The Sacred Harp: 2025 Edition. Thanks to Jeff Kellem of Slanted Hall Type Foundry along with creative consultants Jesse P. Karlsberg, Rachel W. Hall, Fynnian Titford-Mock, Michael Spencer, and Lindy Groening. We hope you will enjoy this preview of our tunebook’s new look!

Collins durations of notes and rests

The treble and bass clefs in the “Collins” font.

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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.

Printable version of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 2 (6 MB PDF).

Our issue begins with David Warren Steel’s “preliminary history” of shape-note singing in Mississippi. Marginalized in accounts of Sacred Harp’s story that have frequently centered on Alabama, Georgia, and Texas, shape-note singing’s rich history in Mississippi spans notation systems, genres, regions, and races. Next, Janet Fraembs details how she and others in downstate Illinois discovered Sacred Harp singing around 1980 and, with a generous assist from Hugh McGraw, established the Illinois State Convention, now in its thirty-third year. Three tributes memorialize recently departed singers who received the Sacred Harp Publishing Company’s posthumous citation. David Ivey’s remembrance of Toney Smith, with whom he served on the music committee that revised The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition, reveals a devoted “singer, leader, teacher, organizer, reviser, and encourager.” Karen Rollins honors B. M. Smith, whose “loving, caring spirit was evident to all he met.” Finally, Rebecca Over offers a tribute to Earlis McGraw, a behind-the-scenes worker for Sacred Harp, stalwart treble singer, and warm and welcoming friend to many. Kathy Williams follows these tributes recounting lessons she learned from her “Sacred Harp elders,” friends who influenced her singing and her life. Next, two writers share new analyses of Sacred Harp harmony and part-writing. Robert T. Kelley illuminates the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic factors that make an “effective pairing of text and tune” in Sacred Harp songs. David Wright focuses on one particular discord that appears in multiple Sacred Harp tunes to illustrate how composers incorporate this distinctive feature of Sacred Harp music into their songwriting. Finally, Alison Brown draws on her experience as a conservator and leader of popular workshops at Camp Doremi to share advice and step-by-step instructions for repairing common forms of damage to songbooks.

With this issue, Elaena Gardner, an Australian Sacred Harp singer who joined the Newsletter team in 2015, is stepping away to pursue a master’s degree in information management. Elaena designed the printable PDF version of the Newsletter and supervised our print layout and design for our first twelve issues. Elaena’s service has helped make the Newsletter accessible to singers who find the print version easier to use than the online version, helping connect these singers to our growing international community of which she is a part. It has been a delight working with Elaena over the past three years. If you are interested in helping with the print and web layout of the Newsletter, please get in touch. We also continue to welcome your comments and suggestions of future article topics.

Vol. 6, No. 2 Contents

Newsletter Team

  • Editor: Jesse P. Karlsberg
  • Associate Editor: Nathan Rees
  • Design: Leigh Cooper and Jesse P. Karlsberg
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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 the big conventions in other states as delegates indicates the low estate of Sacred Harp singing in that commonwealth.” At that time, there was indeed a state Sacred Harp convention and many county conventions, as well as vigorous traditions of singing in The Christian Harmony and in shape-note gospel songbooks. In May 1939, Mississippi native Abbott Ferriss (1915–2014), with Herbert Halpert and other New Deal writers, recorded a Sacred Harp singing in Lauderdale County, and interviewed participants representing four counties where singings have not been held in years. Only with the 1968–70 writings of John Quincy Wolf (1901–72), English professor at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), do we begin to understand the distinctive geography of shape-note singing in the state, and the reasons for the relative lack of communication with singers in neighboring states. These included differences in solmization syllables, tempos, and other issues. In 1971, journalist Joe Dan Boyd wrote about a thriving African American tradition combining singings from The Sacred Harp with “new work” gospel music. In 1978, state folklorist Paula Tadlock published an article on all three shape-note traditions in the state, including diagrams showing varied seating arrangements. In the same year Buell E. Cobb, in The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music, summarized earlier findings and provided an exhaustive “union list” of annual singings from the Sacred Harp, including thirty-eight annual and five monthly singings in Mississippi.

This article offers a preliminary history of the shape-note traditions of the state, showing the diversity of local customs, and recognizing that it is difficult to separate the Sacred Harp, Christian Harmony, and gospel traditions.


Indian Land Cessions in Mississippi. Choctaw cessions of 1830 and Chickasaw cessions of 1832 are shown at 156 and 178 respectively.

When Mississippi became a state in 1817, white settlement was confined to the Gulf Coast and the lower Mississippi Valley. There is little information on singing in this early period, but in 1831, singers at Natchez churches sang urban music printed in round notes. It was only with the Choctaw and Chickasaw cessions of the 1830s that settlers from other states brought singing schools and shape-note tunebooks, including Missouri Harmony and Southern Harmony, into the area.

In 1849, Lazarus J. Jones (1816–97) of Jasper County published The Southern Minstrel. Printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this tunebook contained, in addition to standard tunes from other southern sources, several new compositions and arrangements by Jones and other east central Mississippians. The book went through a second printing in 1855, but subsequently faded from view, although five of its tunes appeared in a block (pages 324–27) in the 1854 edition of William Walker’s Southern Harmony. Jesse T. White (1821–94), a nephew of Sacred Harp compiler B. F. White and composer of ten songs in that book, was clerk of Winston County in the 1850s before moving on to Texas. He may have introduced The Sacred Harp to the hill country of central Mississippi.

Lazarus J. Jones.

At the close of the Civil War, there is evidence of all-day singings from The Sacred Harp in several locations around the state, at least one (1866 in Calhoun County) described as a reunion of soldiers with their families. Soon these singings became annual community homecomings and memorials, attracting thousands of attendees. W. A. Beasley (1830–1903) of Houston and H. J. “Hal” Hawkins (1824–1904) of Ellzey were among the leading singers of that period, and were involved in the formation of Sacred Harp conventions in Calhoun (1878), Chickasaw (1882), and Webster (1883) counties. In East Central Mississippi, singers founded a Newton County Convention around 1875, using William Walker’s Christian Harmony and chaired by E. G. Everett (1843–1927). These and other conventions provided a forum where established teachers met to sing together, to examine and certify new teachers, and to demonstrate the accomplishments of their classes. J. P. Wright (1892–1988) of Webster County recalled that his county convention established an examining committee consisting of three singing teachers, including the president and secretary, to test knowledge of the rudiments, including moods of time and meters of psalmody; he was examined once at age sixteen to become a song leader, and again at age twenty-three to become an accredited teacher.

Sacred Harp singing in Mississippi, especially in Calhoun, Chickasaw, Webster and adjoining counties, has long been identified by a unique practice not found elsewhere: the use of seven syllables (doremi) to name the four shaped notes, in effect, disregarding the shapes that help other singers in learning the notes. This practice appears to date back to the immediate post–Civil War period. It may derive from the transitional 1854 edition of William Walker’s Southern Harmony (p. xxxi), which offers precisely this alternative to the fasola system for singers who wish to sing the more modern seven syllables with the more conservative repertory of the four-shape books. Walker also gives examples of a seven-numeral system, a practice occasionally encountered in Mississippi among Christian Harmony singers. It was reported of Hal Hawkins that he could sing and teach “by four notes, by seven notes, or by number,” according to his pupils’ desire. At singings in this area, basses commonly sat facing the tenors, as in the stitchery depiction by Wright’s niece, Ethel Wright Mohamed (1906–92).

William Walker, Southern Harmony, 1854 edition, offering seven syllables or seven numerals with four shapes.

As African American literacy increased, black singers established their own singing schools and conventions. The Alabama-Mississippi Singing Convention (1887), which uses gospel music today, may have originally sung from The Sacred Harp or William Walker’s Christian Harmony. Certainly the Pleasant Ridge Colored Musical Convention of Calhoun County (1898) sang from The Sacred Harp, as did its sister conventions in Chickasaw and Webster counties.

After the Civil War, singing schools and shape notes became increasingly identified with the South, while declining in popularity in other regions. Many teachers switched from the four-shape system to a seven-shape system to keep pace with new teaching methods. Leading teachers and publishers established “music normal schools” for the training of teachers. Southern firms such as Ruebush-Kieffer and A. J. Showalter began to publish small, inexpensive collections of music every year or two. These upright songbooks gradually began to supplant the large oblong tunebooks with their fixed repertoire. Showalter’s Class, Choir and Congregation (1888), a transitional book, remained in print well into the twentieth century: a “Class Choir” state convention, chaired by William E. Lane (1891–1989), was organized in Neshoba County in 1956. After 1900, mass-market publishers like James D. Vaughan (from 1902), V. O. Stamps (1924) and J. R. “Pap” Baxter (Stamps-Baxter Music from 1926) served the market by printing one or more books a year in a style known today as convention gospel music. In Mississippi, this style is often known as “new work” music, as opposed to “old Harp”; in earlier times, it was derided as “almanac music.” While traditional gospel singings, sometimes even unaccompanied, persisted in many areas among black and white singers, other local conventions came to resemble quartet concerts. A state singing convention held its first regular session in 1934 in Newton County, with W. D. Rayner presiding. The Blackwood Brothers of Choctaw County emerged from this convention to achieve fame as gospel performers. Quartet members James Blackwood (1919–2002) and J. D. Sumner (1924–1998) established the National Gospel Quartet Convention in 1956, based solely on quartet performances. In 1957 Videt Polk and Bobby Burnett established Gospel Singers of America, a group sponsoring an annual residential singing school at their campus in Pass Christian. Another residential singing school, emphasizing congregational singing, was Harmony Valley, founded in Natchez in 1970 by Elder E. D. McCutcheon (1912–2005), but later located near Ecru in north Mississippi.

Mississippi State Gospel Music Convention, Booneville, 2016.

Hugh Bill McGuire leading at Spring Creek Church in Calhoun County, 1986. Note the basses seated opposite the tenors, with the altos seated behind the trebles to the right of the tenors. The space to the left of the tenors is used by overflow tenor or bass.

During the early twentieth century, the Sacred Harp held its ground, and continued to spread into new territory. As copies of the 1870 Sacred Harp wore out and new ones became unavailable, singers had to choose among the varied revisions and editions that appeared after 1900. In the north central area covered by the three oldest conventions, Calhoun, Chickasaw, and New Harmony (Webster) and surrounding areas, where the doremi system held sway, and where African American singings and conventions also were active, the J. L. White Fourth Edition, with Supplement (1911) predominated, and came to be known as the “B. F. White book.” By the 1950s, both black and white singers were again faced with the unavailability of new books; they were unaware of the 1958 Atlanta-area reprint of the White book. By the 1970s, both groups had adopted the Original Sacred Harp: Denson Revision, although many White book songs remained popular, and it was a rare singing where “Don’t grieve your mother” was not heard at least once.

To the north and east of this area were two distinct groups of singers who sang the fasola syllables. Prentiss and Tishomingo Counties were influenced by the Denson family, a branch of whom had settled the area in 1875. According to George Pullen Jackson, Thomas Cicero Denson (1857–1935) reported to a Texas convention in 1930 about local activities. Although John Quincy Wolf suggested that these activities likely consisted of mainly gospel music and little Sacred Harp, I have met Denson descendants from this area who were quite competent “fasola” singers; they probably adopted the James book early on. The eastern group (Itawamba, Monroe, and Lowndes Counties) was closely connected with western Alabama: they knew both the White and James books, but eventually settled on the James book, and later the Denson.

In the southeast “Piney Woods” area, centered on Jones and Jasper Counties, singers, possibly influenced by singers in the Mobile area, adopted the W. M. Cooper revision at an unknown date. They had minimal contact with the other groups until the 1930s. There were also singings in the Meridian area. It is unknown, for example, what book was used at the 1939 singing described above: it could have been White, James or Cooper, but not Denson, judging from the page numbers. West of Meridian, the Christian Harmony prevailed, as it had done ever since the 1870s.

Elmer A. Enochs (1888–1994) was still leading music at the age of 103.

The Mississippi State Sacred Harp Singing Convention was founded in 1929 at Houston with William Thomas Gwin (1853–1934) as its first president. Despite its name, it included Christian Harmony singers from the beginning, and allowed songs from both books. Gradually this body began to attract singers from the Delta area, where immigrant hill-folk from Webster and Calhoun counties were holding singings before 1930, and from southeast Mississippi, where the South Mississippi Convention was organized in 1947 using the Cooper revision of The Sacred Harp. Black singers established the West Harmony Convention (Grenada County) in 1922, and the Negro Mississippi State Sacred Harp Musical Convention in 1934, organized by W. A. Wandwick, Frank Payne, and Elmer A. Enochs (1888–1994).

In northeast Mississippi, where Sacred Harp singers used the “fasola” system popular in Alabama and elsewhere; the area was a fertile field for Alabama singing-teachers such as S. M. Denson (1854–1936), R. A. Canant (1883–1984), and F. M. Frederick (1893–1960). Outside this area, however, Mississippi singers had little contact with their counterparts in Alabama and other states. In 1959 R. A. Stewart (1897–1977) of Houston began a weekly half-hour radio program of Sacred Harp singing and announcements that continues to this day. He also attended Alabama singings, promoted the Denson book, and established an annual singing in Houston, re-established in Oxford after his death, where singers from both states were encouraged to meet.

During the 1960s, the Mississippi State Convention reported as many as seventy annual singings, not counting black singings and northeast Mississippi “fasola” singings unaffiliated with the state convention. Since 1970, singings from the Sacred Harp and Christian Harmony have declined over most of the state; some conventions have been discontinued, while other three-day conventions have been reduced to two or even one day. Shape-note gospel singings and conventions have declined as well, though the Gospel Singers of America celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2007 by hosting the National Gospel Singing Convention in Pass Christian. Sacred Harp singing has entirely died out among the African American groups, although some gospel singings and conventions remain. The remaining singers, however, travel more widely and stay in touch more effectively with the aid of online forums. Calhoun County native Mark Davis has chaired the National Sacred Harp Convention since 2008; it can no longer be said that Mississippi singers are unknown and unrecognized at out-of-state gatherings.

Audio Recordings

Author’s Note

This is an expansion of an article appearing in the Mississippi Encyclopedia (2017), with permission of the editors. Among those who shared information in personal interviews are George W. Boswell, Everette Driskell, Cleo Hawkins, Hugh Bill McGuire, Stephen Shearon, and J. P. Wright.

Further Reading

  • Boyd, Joe Dan. “Negro Sacred Harp Songsters in Mississippi.” Mississippi Folklore Register 5, no. 3 (Fall 1971): 60–87.
  • Cobb, Buell E., Jr. The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978.
  • Eskew, Harry. “Christian Harmony Singing in Alabama: Its Adaptation and Survival.” In Singing Baptists: Studies in Baptist Hymnody in America, edited by Harry Eskew, David W. Music, and Paul Akers Richardson, 265–76. Nashville, TN: Church Street Press, 1994.
  • Fasola: Fifty-three Shape Note Folk Hymns: All Day Sacred Harp Singing at Stewart’s Chapel in Houston, Mississippi by Amelia and Frederic Ramsey, Jr. LP recording, Asch Folkways Asch Mankind Series AHM 4151.
  • Olson, Ted. “‘The Voices of the Older Ones’: The Sacred Harp Singing Tradition of Calhoun County, Mississippi.” Mississippi Folklore Register 25/26 (1991–92): 11–29.
  • Simmons, Murray. “Loosascoona.” Chicago Sacred Harp Newsletter 7, no. 4 (December 1991). http://fasola.org/essays/Loosascoona.html.
  • Steel, David Warren. “L. J. Jones and The Southern Minstrel (1849).” American Music 6, no. 2 (Summer 1988): 123–57.
  • ———. “The W. T. Gwin Old Harp Singers Trophy: A Unique Piece of Sacred Harp Memorabilia from Mississippi.” Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter 4, no. 2 (2015). http://originalsacredharp.com/2015/12/31/the-w-t-gwin-old-harp-singers-trophy/.
  • Tadlock, Paula. “Shape-Note Singing in Mississippi.” In Discourse in Ethnomusicology: Essays in Honor of George List, edited by Caroline Card, John Hasse, Roberta L. Singer, and Ruth M. Stone, 191–207. Bloomington: Ethnomusicology Publications Group, Indiana University, 1978.
  • Walls, Chiquita. The African American Shape Note and Vocal Music Singing Convention Directory, a special publication of Mississippi Folklife 27 (1994).
  • ———. “Mississippi’s African American Shape Note Tradition,” La-Miss-Ala Shape Note Newsletter (November–December 1999). http://www.home.olemiss.edu/~mudws/articles/walls.html.
  • Wolf, John Quincy. “The Sacred Harp in Northeast Mississippi.” Mississippi Folklore Register 4, no. 2 (Summer 1970). http://web.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/harpinmiss.htm.
  • ———. “The Sacred Harp in Mississippi,” Journal of American Folklore 81, no. 322 (October–December, 1968): 337–41.
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