The New Harp Of Columbia, Restored Ed

In the small towns & rural areas of early America, church-sponsored "singing schools" proliferated as a way of both improving congregational singing & drawing communities together. Congregants attending these schools were taught a form of musical notation in which the notes were assigned different shapes to indicate variations in pitch--a method that worked well with singers having little understanding of standard musical notation. These schools eventually became major social events that drew hundreds of attendees, & today countless enthusiasts carry on the shape-note tradition. The New Harp of Columbia, originally published in Knoxville in 1867, was a shape-note tunebook used in East Tennessee singing schools. It was based on an even earlier publication, The Harp of Columbia (1848). In 1978, the University of Tennessee Press published a facsimile edition of The New Harp with an introduction by Dorothy D. Horn, Ron Petersen, & Candra Phillips that detailed the history of shape-note singing as well as the story of the tunebook itself & its original compilers, W. H. Swan & M. L. Swan. That edition went out of print in 1999. Now, for this "restored edition" of the tunebook, the Press has reprinted not only the full text of its 1978 facsimile edition but has included additional tunes that were part of the original 1848 Harp of Columbia. A few verses to some songs favored by contemporary singers have also been added, & a new foreword by Larry Olszewski & Bruce Wheeler brings the story of the tunebook & its users up to date. Included in the book are old psalm & hymn tunes, anthems, fuguing pieces, & folk hymns--a total of more than two hundred pieces that represent a fascinating slice of Americana. As a reviewer for the Journal of Church Music noted of the 1978 facsimile: "[The book is] a worthwhile addition to any church musician's library, especially those interested in the development of American sacred music over the past two centuries." This publication marks a significant new step in preserving an important musical tradition.Ml Swan is the author of 'The New Harp Of Columbia, Restored Ed', published 2001 under ISBN 9781572331280 and ISBN 1572331283.