Modern Tunesmith

A dumping ground for my shapenote recordings, both of existing and original compositions Main blog @ukfrislandembassy

[moderntunesmith]

Eureka

This tune comes from that set of Sacred Harp tunes that got dropped from the Denson revision sometime after 1911 but remained in the Cooper book (378b), as the singers of Hoboken Georgia still held onto it in a slightly mutated form, and that's how it ended up in the Shenandoah Harmony (326t). Curiously, the words the Hoboken singers attached to it (which aren't the words attached to it in any Sacred Harp edition) made an appearance in the 1904 edition of the Anglican Hymns Ancient and Modern (of all things), which itself was a disaster of an edition for many reasons, and they've not appeared in an Anglican hymnal before or since. I'm here singing all the verses that appear in that edition (pictured below from my dad's copy), so be warned it is a long one.

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Living Streams (SH 558)

Like many Brits, I'm a sucker for versifications of Psalm 23, because of all of the shepherding that dominates a sizeable part of Britain's rural economy. This one's got a pretty unique set of words that don't seem to be too common, especially in the UK, but it works well with the strong sense of momentum in T.B. McGraw's music; you'd never have thought music constructed almost entirely out of arpeggios would have such life to it.

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Help Me To Sing (SH 376)

I don't think I'm going to be posting every day, but here's something to help with that (haha). I think this was one of the first songs to bring to my attention the dissonant potential of the Sacred Harp, with that chord change from the move to while just completely shifting the vibe, especially with a large singing class to get the full resonance. Also sadly missing from this recording, because of my click-track based production process, is the (unwritten) pause on the second note of the penultimate bar, which given that it's also the highest not in the song really serves as a well-placed climax.

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Pennsylvania (Shumway)

Kicking things off here with a bit of a bang. Those who sing regularly from the Shenandoah Harmony or perhaps the Northern Harmony are probably more familiar with the Jeremiah Ingalls tune (ShH 254) of the same name ('The trumpet sounds, hell trembles, heaven rejoices/Lift up ye saints with cheeeerful voices!'), but I'd argue this one (ShH 282) is the more musically interesting of the two. Shumway doesn't quite get enough love I reckon, despite 192 Schenectady and 217 Ballstown in the Sacred Harp being both popular and bangers.

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