Note: This list is not intended to be comprehensive, but rather to show the current scope of resource materials for the teaching of American Music.
Index to a Sample of Web Resources
Music of the United States of AmericaCenter for Black Music Research
Archives of African American Music and Culture
Sousa Archives for Band Research
Music of the United States of America
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A project of the American Musicological Society, in
collaboration with the Sonneck Society and A-R
Editions. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
and hosted by the University of Michigan School of Music.
Pronounced "Mew-Zah," MUSA (Music of the United States of America)
publishes a series of scholarly editions of American music. In
addition to musical scores or notations, each volume includes a
substantial contextual essay and a critical editorial apparatus.
Nationwide, over 350 libraries subscribe to
the MUSA series. On one hand, the project represents a traditional
approach to research through the preparation of critical scores. Each
edition also features a substantial critical essay which extends
scholarly discourse in the field of American music. MUSA engages with
cutting-edge theoretical perspectives in its attempts to publish
repertories and represent oral cultural traditions not typically
addressed by musical editions.
PAST MUSA PROJECTS
MUSA 1: Ruth Crawford: Music for Small Orchestra (1926); Suite No. 2 for Four Strings and Piano (1929)
Edited by Judith Tick and Wayne Schneider
MUSA 2: Irving Berlin: Early Songs, 1907-1914
Edited by Charles Hamm
MUSA 3: Amy Beach: Quartet for Strings (In One Movement), Opus 89
Edited by Adrienne Fried Block
MUSA 4: Daniel Read: Collected Works
Edited by Karl Kroeger
MUSA 5: The Music and Scripts of In Dahomey
Edited by Thomas L. Riis
MUSA 6: Timothy Swan: Psalmody and Secular Songs
Edited by Nym Cooke
MUSA 7: Harrigan and Braham: Collected Songs, 1873-1986
Edited by Jon W. Finson
CURRENT MUSA PROJECTS
MUSA 8: Lou Harrison: Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1988
Edited by Leta Miller
MUSA 9: American Indians and American Music: Historic Transcriptions, Notations, and Arrangements
Edited by Victoria Lindsay Levine
MUSA 10: Harry Partch: Barstow
Edited by Richard Kassel
MUSA 11: Fats Waller: Performances in Transcription
Edited by Paul S. Machlin
MUSA 12: Earl "Fatha" Hines: Selected Piano Solos, 1928-1941
Edited by Jeffrey Taylor
MUSA 13: The Core Repertory of Slave Songs of the United States
Edited by Eileen Southern
MUSA 14: John Philip Sousa: Seven Marches
Edited by Frank Byrne and Jonathan Elkus
MUSA 15: Hawaiian Songs: Ancient and Modern
Edited by Amy Stillman
MUSA 16: American Fiddle Tunes
Edited by Paul F. Wells
MUSA 17: Stephen Sondheim, James Goldman, and Jonathan Tunick
Edited by Jon Alan Conrad
Center for Black Music Research
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The Columbia College Chicago Center for Black Music Research documents, preserves, and disseminates information about black music in all parts of the world. It encourages research in the areas of secular and sacred folk music, blues, ragtime, jazz, gospel music, rhythm and blues, musical theater and dance, opera and concert music; reggae, son, merengue/méringue, bomba y plena, salsa, calypso, and other genres from the Caribbean; and traditional and contemporary music from Africa.
Archives of African American Music and Culture
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Selected List of Internet Resources for African American Music. Accessed 15 November 1997.
Note: All of the underlined words represent links to additional
reference sites. Go to the original site to access these sites.
Acid Jazz:
The Acid Jazz Server. A primer on acid jazz, plus an annotated list of magazines, clubs, and record labels.
Art Music of Black Composers:
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Inc. A non-profit association (chartered by the State of Illinois) comprised of musicians and composers dedicated to "nurturing, performing, and recording serious, original music." The AACM pays homage to the diverse styles of expression within the body of black music in the USA, Africa and throughout the world.
Classical Music in Black and White. A lovely site loaded with information on African American musicians and composers. Includes sound files, lists of resources, biographies.
Black Radio:
Jack the Rapper's Mello Yello Online. Mello Yello is America's oldest and most-circulated African American trade publication (celebrating its 20th birthday on April 16, 1996).
Radioscope's EUR -- Electronic Urban Report (urban/black entertainment news)
Soul Choice. A team of DJ's across Canada who play hip-hop, soul, rhythm and blues, reggae, soul jazz, latin, jungle, go-go, and bass music. The group gives feedback to music labels and publishes a top 50 chart.
Blues Music:
Blues Access Online: the Distinctive Blues Magazine
The Blue Highway. Tributes to blues greats, radio listings, Billboard's top 15, and links to other sites.
BluesNet: the Internet's Blues Resource Centre
Delta Snake Blues News: the online blues 'zine
BluesWEB. Information about blues artists, records, and festivals and links to other blues websites.
Chicago Blues Festival.
House of Blues Online.
Maxwell Street Blues Home Sweet Home Page. A history of the famous street that helped launch the careers of many Chicago blues musicians.
Classical Music:
Classical Music in Black and White
Gospel Music:
Gospel and Spiritual Music in the Southern Folklife Collection. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. SFC's Homepage also includes southeastern blues traditions.
GospelWeb. The official Internet home of the Gospel Music Association.
Jazz:
The Jazz and Blues Wing of the Electric Gallery. A commercial online art gallery.
Jazz Online. Articles, live music calendars, album reviews, links to record labels, and an "Artist Korner" and "Blues Room".
The Jazz Photography of Ray Avery. An online photographic exhibition presented by the UCI Bookstore, University of California, Irvine.
JazzTimes Online. An online sampler of JazzTimes Magazine.
WNUR-FM Jazz Web. Northwestern University
Hip-Hop and Rap Music:
Radioscope.
Electronic Urban Report.
Guillotine...strictly for the heads
Hip Hop Reviews. Music reviews written by MIT graduate student Charles Isbell.
Honeycomb Hideout. Hip-hop news and reviews.
The Internet Ghetto Blaster. Reviews of new musicians and albums.
Streetsound Online
The Totally Unofficial Rap Dictionary
VIBEonline
Rhythm and Blues Music:
WRNB - the Web's R&B Music Source
The R&B Page
Rock and Roll:
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Located in Cleveland, Ohio.
Shape Note Singing and Convention Singing:
Sacred harp and related shape-note music: resources. Compilation and commentary by Steven L. Sabol.
Awards:
Trumpet Awards from Turner Broadcasting System. The Trumpet Awards salute African American achievement, and this year's honorees include Kathleen Battle, Charley Pride, Harry Belafonte, and Nat "King" Cole. The program airs Saturday, February 24, 1996 at 8:05 pm on TBS.
Conferences:
Rhythmic Music Education. 1996 International Music Council (IMC) Congress of UNESCO. July 5-8, 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The content is higher education of musicians and music educators in the fields of jazz, rock and world music.
Other Indiana University Resources:
Archives of Traditional Music.
Black Culture Center Library.
Black Film Center/Archive.
Indiana University Libraries and link to IU Libraries' Online Catalog (IUCAT).
Indiana University School of Music.
Selected Additional Web Sites:
American Music Information Source Guide.
Aardvark's Archive of General Music Interest. A comprehensive index of music-related links on the Web.
AAHP - African American Home Page, published by Joseph Jones, Long Beach, California.
The American Music Center. "America's not-for-profit contemporary music information and resource center."
The Universal Black Pages -- a listing of African diaspora- related Web pages.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. National research library devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world.
Warner Bros. Records Black Music
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AMR is a multi-dimensional source of reference information about all styles of music indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. It is intended to serve efficiently and quickly: text-only. The collection houses over 800 bibliographies, lists and files, and is indexed below by TOPIC (genre and style subdivisions) and SUBJECT (individuals - mostly composers). Some listings also include links to selected Internet resources, as does the NETOGRAPHY. This file contains information about primary bibliographical sources for American Music, a brief description of the American Music Resource and a few suggestions for music research. Here is the portal to the AMR System itself.
(All of the underlined words represent links to additional reference sites. Go to the original site to access these sites.)
Topic Index
American Music in general
African-American Music in general
Ethnic Musics in general
Hispanic Music
Native American Music
Women in Music
Blues
Classical (concert) Music (and avant garde)
Comedy, Vaudeville, Burlesque
Composition - all styles
Country Music
Dance and Performance Art
Electroacoustic Music Literature
Film and TV Music
Folk Music
Gospel/Religious Music (black and white)
Instruments and Ensembles
Jazz
Lyrics
Musical Theatre
Opera
Poly-Ethnic Musics selected bib.
Popular Music in general
Postmodernism selected bib. (mostly music)
Ragtime
Rhythm 'n' Blues (also dance, disco, rap)
Rock Music
Structure and Theory
Technology and Science
Music Copyright Information
Subject Index
Laurie Anderson
Milton Babbitt
Samuel Barber
John Becker
Irving Berlin
Leonard Bernstein
John Cage
Elliott Carter
Carlos Chàvez
Aaron Copland
John Corigliano
Henry Cowell
Ruth Crawford
George Crumb
Emma Lou Diemer
"Duke" Ellington
Vivian Fine
Eleanor Everest Freer
George Gershwin
Peggy Glanville-Hicks
Louis-Moreau Gottschalk
Morton Gould
Woody and Arlo Guthrie
W. C. Handy
Howard Hanson
Lou Harrison
Roy Harris
Fletcher Henderson
Jerry Herman
Holland-Dozier-Holland
Charles Ives
Scott Joplin
John Kander (and Fred Ebb)
Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter)
John and Alan Lomax
Alvin Lucier
Otto Luening
Colin McPhee
Mary Carr Moore
Meredith Monk
"Jelly Roll" Morton
Pauline Oliveros
Harry Partch
Russell Peck
Vincent Persichetti
Walter Piston
Cole Porter
Steve Reich
George Rochberg
Jimmie Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
Carl Ruggles
The Seeger family
Charles Seeger
Mike Seeger
Peggy Seeger
Pete Seeger
Sherwood Shaffer
Elie Siegmeister
Paul Simon
Nicolas Slonimsky
Julia Smith
Stephen Sondheim
John Philip Sousa
Virgil Thomson
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Edgard Varèse
Heitor Villa-Lobos
"Fats" Waller
Robert Ward
Stevie Wonder
AMR: Selected Annotated Netography
As an aid to the inexperienced, AMR here provides some basic Internet Surf-notes. Indiana University, which has been a significant presence on the Net for many years, offers a strong on-line collection of primary bibliographical research aids, sources, and FAQs on their IU Music Library home page.
AMR cannot possibly cite all the significant Internet links in American music; many, however, are contained within the specific Topics and Subjects of this collection. On the highest level, several music Meta-lists may be found on the net. One of the most comprehensive sets of links, the Worldwide Music Resources on the Internet is also provided by IU. It is a good starting point for many searches. Also, LSU offers a Music Webliography. Other broad collections of Internet music links are the Music Meta-list, the Mammoth Music Meta-list, and the WWW Virtual Library - Classical Music; there are others. The somewhat more selective list offered by the Music Department of UC San Diego contains many citations related to American music and modern technology. Harvard University provides one of the most sophisticated collections of Internet Resources for Music Scholars. M.I.T. has a small but useful set of reference bibliographies for various musical styles and genre.
Artswire contains a Database of Arts-Related Sites on the Web. More sources for music on the Web are provided by the Art-net and the WWW of Music which includes the Ultimate Band List. On-line listings of musical events may be found at the Music Events Calendar and Musi-Cal.
Research aids and actual documents printed on-line are becoming increasingly available. Carnegie Mellon University offers a collection of Online Reference Works, and A Historical On-line Text Archive is available from Mississippi State University. A GOPHER-indexed collection of Dissertation Abstracts is held at UMI. Probably the largest collection of links to on-line printed resources including the Guttenburg Project is found at the ETEXT Archives. A few other music archives include a Discography Archive, the University of Kentucky's Music Archive, and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside's Music Archive; there are more.
Until recently, Song Title/Author Searches, most often categorized by styles, were available only in printed reference materials. Now ASCAP, and BMI, and SESAC offer on-line search engines for their millions of registered compositions. Online Folksong searches are also available. Many publishing houses are currently in the process of establishing sites on the Net, and are listed by the IU MPA Directory of Music Publishers. A broader collection of Publisher's Catalogs contains over 500 listings. The Library of Congress is now on-line. However, O.C.L.C. listings and other bibliographical research resources are often more easily accessed through individual libraries offering online catalogs and links to O.C.L.C. databases, periodical indexes, and the like. The Internet also contains a list of Library Catalogs World Wide.
Here is one List of Lists on the Internet; again, there are others. Internet Search Engines are offered by many providers. Several different resources must be employed in order to find all significant information on a given subject or topic. Citations for older files are often only to be found by using older engines such as ARCHIE or VERONICA. The collection of Search Engines provided by UNCG is fairly complete but also consult the All-In-One Search Page or the SavvySearch utility. The following individual engines might also be of help: W3 Search Engine - Alta Vista - WebCrawler - CMU W3 Search Engines - Lycos - Metacrawler. The large Internet index Yahoo offers search capabilities but is actually a large hierarchical site-list arranged by subject. More of these indices are also available.
The Web is beginning to hold more and more listings of in-print musical recordings; links to these may be found in the Meta-lists above. The best "official" listing of recordings in the USA, Schwann/Opus, is published quarterly by Stereophile in Santa Fe, NM. It is not available on-line, is sometimes out of date, and does not list all of the smaller record companies. The computer-listing MUZE (not to be confused with the CD-ROM "MUSE") is found only in record stores and is not always up-to-date. The UK Gramophone Classical Catalogue is issued twice a year and is also satisfactory for musicological information. It is, however, restricted to CDs generally available in the UK.
Internet Newsgroups, Listservers and Discussions relevant to American music may also be found in the Meta-lists, above. Florida State University offers a good list of Music Newsgroups and Listservs. Be aware also that many Bulletin Boards exist on the Net or through separate dial-up connections. Editorial Note: AMR is strongly opposed to the pay-for-knowledge concept and such sites which now are beginning to appear on the Web. Please ignore any of the URLs cited above if such is the case.
Sousa Archives for Band Research
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The Sousa Collection at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign comprises 71% of extant Sousa materials. Currently are in the fourth month of a 15 month National Endowment for the Humanities preservation and access project, we are processing the archival manuscript music materials for preservation microfilming. The collection includes not only published and manuscript music for the band medium, but also vocal and violin works with band accompaniment. The names of Sousa Band vocal soloists Estelle Liebling, Marjorie Moody, Mary Baker, Nora Fauchald and violinists Maud Powell and Carolyn Powers (as well as names of other vocal and violin soloists) appear on the music. Many of the parts include annotations, both musical and otherwise; the materials provide researchers with more than a 50-year perspective on performance practice, repertoire, itinerary, personnel, and American musical taste.
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A Guide for American Teachers of Music History
Historically, the teaching of music history to music majors in American colleges and universities has involved, in the main, artmusic from Europe. The Sonneck Society's Interest Group on American Music in American Schools and Colleges, which generated this booklet, is devoted to encourage the inclusion of American music in our courses--which is not now usual due to the fact that typically most of us were taught little or nothing of our own musical heritage. Our intent in this booklet is to suggest ways to complement traditional Eurocentric topics with American ones. Music history, as taught in most countries of the world, includes that country's musical heritage. Americans should do no less. To quote Gunther Schuller, "The neglect of our earlier American music has long been an unfortunate blemish on our musical life. Ignored by performers, orchestras and conductors, the first century or so of American musical culture has for too many years been the private reserve of a few historians and musicologists (even far too few of these), leaving the impression that American music somehow began with Aaron Copland in the 1920s, and that anything created before was unworthy or irrelevant" (liner notes to his recording of Paine's St. Peter).
This material was originally distributed as a booklet by the Sonneck Society for American Music to all teachers of music history in the U.S. in 1991.
Contents
Preface
1. Guido's syllables--American solmization
2. Notre Dame organum--shape-note music
3. Machaut, Josquin--Billings
4. Calvinist psalmtune books--American psalmtune books
5. Bach--Paine
6. Ballad opera--American performances
7. Classical chamber/vocal music--Moravians
8. Mozart & Haydn--Reinagle, Hewitt, Taylor, Hopkinson
9. Beethoven, Berlioz--Anthony Philip Heinrich
10. Schubert--Benjamin Carr
11. Schumann--Foster
12. Chopin--William Mason
13. Liszt and 19th-century piano virtuosity--Gottschalk
14. 19th-century choral and church music--Lowell Mason
15. 19th-century instrumental music--bands
16. Mendelssohn--Paine
17. Brahms--Chadwick, Paine, Beach
18. Tchaikovsky--first American performances
19. Grieg--MacDowell
20. Debussy--Griffes
21. Les Six--Thomson
22. Stravinsky, "Petroushka"--William Grant Still
Bibliography
(Sample Section)
6. Ballad opera.
Gay and Pepusch's Beggar's Opera (1728) and other ballad operas were also widely performed in colonial America and the early years of the U.S. The first was apparently in Charleston, where in February 1735 Flora: or, Hob in the Well was performed. Opera organizations included the Company of Comedians, organized in 1749, and the London Company of Comedians, which arrived from London in 1752 and was active (from 1758 renamed the American Company) through the rest of the century.
BACKGROUND:
Chase, 99, 101; Hamm, 89-95; Hitchcock, 32-33.
SCORES:
Andrew Barton, The Disappointment: or, The Force of Credulity (Philadelphia, 1767), Recent Researches in American Music (henceforth, RRAM), vols. 3-4.
John O'Keeffe and William Shield, The Poor Soldier (London, 1783; U.S., 1784), RRAM 6.
John Bray and James Nelson Barker, The Indian Princess; or,
La Belle Sauvage, an Operatic Melo-drame in Three Acts
(Philadelphia, 1808; facsimile, Da Capo, 1972).
RECORDINGS:
Barton, The Disappointment, Vox Turnabout TV-S 34650, 1976.
Bray and Barker, The Indian Princess, New World NW 232.
FURTHER READING:
Carolyn Rabson, "Disappointment Revisited: Unweaving the Tangled Web," American Music 1/1 (spring 1983): 12-35; 2/1 (spring 1984): 1-28.
Otto E. Albrecht, "Opera in Philadelphia, 1800-1830," JAMS 32/3 (fall 1979): 499-515.
Sacred Harp and Related Shape-Note Music Resources
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Compilation of discography and commentary by Steven L. Sabol (Washington, D.C. Sacred Harp Singers)
Professional videotapes of the 1996 and 1997 Antioch Baptist Church singings. One of the best one-day southern Sacred Harp singings, the Wootten family singing in Ider, AL, has been recorded for posterity on a series of professionally produced but unedited videotapes commissioned by the Woottens.
Amazing Grace with Bill Moyers. A 90-min special program first shown on PBS television stations in October 1990 and occasionally repeated on PBS stations. The program describes the history of the hymn Amazing Grace, the life of its author John Newton, the singing of the hymn in its many versions by soloists and groups having a wide variety of styles, and the meaning of the words to a variety of people.
"Fa Sol La Me," a musical documentary about Sacred Harp, produced by Tracy Chambers. A 20-minute videotape capturing a moment in Sacred Harp history, the 1990 United Convention, held for the first time in its 87-year history outside the South, in Chicago. Judy Hauff, one of the founding members of the Chicago Sacred Harp Singers, discusses the feeling of participating in a singing and the loyalty felt for the Southern singers as the preservationists of the tradition.
Videotapes from the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. A large number of color videotapes about most aspects of Southern culture are listed on the Web site for the Southern Culture Catalog of the Center at the University of Mississippi.
"The Sounds of Faith." This 30-minute video features black Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers in the area of Ozark, Alabama. Some singing is shown, but much of the program consists of interviews with leaders of this group, including Dewey Williams and H.J. Jackson, son of Judge Jackson, the compiler of The Colored Sacred Harp, who discuss the religious significance of the music in their lives and lament the decline of this tradition.
"They Sing of a Heaven." A 15-minute color video produced in 1972 by Robert D. Osterling of the University of Mississippi Center for Public Service and Continuing Studies.
"The Shape-Note Singers." A 30-minute video written and produced in 1984 by William Cole of the Arkansas Educational Television Network.
Amateur videotapes of singings. Several singers frequently take their camcorders to singings to record them and later produce amateur videotapes for sale to other singers. The videotapes generally show mainly the leaders with altos in the background; overview scenes are sometimes done briefly.
Videotapes of southern singings produced by J.C. Harden. Mr. Harden makes 4-hour videotapes of each day of singings that he attends and has sold each videotape for $9.00 postpaid (perhaps $10.00 now).
Videotapes of singings produced by Bill Windom. Mr. Windom prepares videotapes of singings that he attends and sells them for $10.00 postpaid. His wife Reba Dell Windom is a member of the Lacy singing family of north Alabama.
Videotapes of Christian Harmony Singings from Diane Eskenasy. Ms. Eskenasy has prepared copies of videotapes made at several recent Christian Harmony singings in North Carolina.
Videotape of highlights of the First Annual UK Shape-Note Convention. The convention was held in September 1996 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England.
"Songs from The Missouri Harmony," recorded by the St. Louis Shape Note Singers. This cassette tape issued in May 1994 presents 21 selections from The Missouri Harmony, 1846 Edition, which was reprinted in March 1994 (see Tunebooks section above) performed by 14 shape-note singers from St. Louis, led by Kathleen Thro.
"Rivers of Delight," sung by the Word of Mouth Chorus, Larry Gordon, director. This superb 1979 Nonesuch recording by a pioneering New England vocal ensemble has been the major nationally marketed Sacred Harp recording for fifteen years, and is still selling strong in tape and now compact-disc formats.
Recordings by Singing Ensembles led by Larry Gordon (Bayley-Hazen Singers, Northern Harmony ensemble, Village Harmony, etc.) Information from the Northern Harmony Web site:
"Endless Light: Spiritual Songs from a New Generation of Composers," sung by Village Harmony. (1997) This a collection of 21 songs and two instrumental numbers written by nine teenage composers who are present or past members of the Larry Gordon's teenage singing ensemble Village Harmony.
"Heavenly Meeting," sung by Northern Harmony singers and guests. (1995) This interesting and varied recording captures some of the best performances from a 1994 tour through Europe of many Bayley-Hazen Singers and Village Harmony veterans, and other such as the Amidons, Mary Cay Brass, and Tim Eriksen.
"Arise, Arise," performed by the Mellstock Band and the Bayley-Hazen Singers. (1993) This recording was made on the collaborative tour that the Singers did with the British Mellstock Band and Choir, which performs West Gallery and rural English music of the 1700s and early 1800s.
"Emerald Stream," sung by the Bayley-Hazen Singers and Village Harmony. (1992) This recording contains 12 contemporary and 11 early New England tunes, mostly from the Northern Harmony tunebook (see Tunebook chapter).
"Northern Harmony" performed by the Bayley-Hazen Singers (1989) (Front Hall Records FHR205C.) Twenty-one selections from the tunebook of the same name.
"Sing and Joyful Be," sung by the Norumbega Harmony, Stephen Marini, director. A digital recording of many early American and Sacred Harp songs and anthems, sung with enthusiasm and discipline by the major performing group of early American shape-note music in the Boston area.
"Shaker Songs: Come to Zion," sung by Norumbega Harmony and Singers of Hancock Shaker Village, directed by Stephen Marini. This excellent recording presents 35 Shaker songs and anthems of all types dating from early hymnals to the 1908 hymnal.
"Make a Joyful Noise: Mainstreams and Backwaters of American Psalmody 1770-1840," sung by the Oregon State University Choir, Ron Jeffers, conductor. This 1996 CD is a reissue of a 1978 New World LP which for years was one of the few available recordings of early American psalmody. It contains 17 selections by Billings, Belcher, Kimball, Swan, Read, including several quite noteworthy ones.
"Pleasure Tunes My Tongue: Folk Hymns and Anthems from the Sacred Harp Tradition," sung by One Accord, Kathleen Thro, director. A digitally recorded tape (LP also available) of many Sacred Harp songs and anthems and several other early-American pieces, including the pulse-stopper Communion, sung by a semi-professional St. Louis group which effectively synthesizes the styles of folk hymnody and disciplined choral singing.
Recordings by the Northampton Harmony. This New England-based quartet features Jeff Colby on bass, Timothy Eriksen on lead, Kelly House on treble, and Cath Oss on alto. These young people have memorable voice timbres and a remarkable singing style which resembles that of Appalachian singers and Sacred Harp singers of earlier generations.
"The Hookes' Regular Sing," by the Northampton Harmony, is a new recording on CD and cassette containing 21 shape-note songs from The Sacred Harp, The American Vocalist, The American Musical Magazine, and other collections, including some never before recorded.
"Never Turn Back," by the Northampton Harmony. This cassette, issued in late 1993, features singing 20 old and new tunes. The tunes are from varied sources, including The Sacred Harp, The Social Harp, and other compilations of New England music, including the singers' own New Northampton Collection of Sacred and Secular Harmony (see Tunebook section).
"How Sweet the Minutes," recorded by Judy Hauff. A 1996 CD presenting 42 shape-note tunes from Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, one of the earliest shape-note tunebooks (first published in 1810, with "Part Second" in 1813). Noted Chicago Sacred Harp singer and composer Judy Hauff sings all four parts (some more than once), using a multitrack recorder.
"Angels on the Wing," by Judy Hauff. A collection of early American Christmas tunes in the shape-note tradition from several tunebooks. All parts are sung by noted Chicago Sacred Harp singer Judy Hauff, who also did the recording and editing. "Vermont Harmony" recordings by the University of Vermont Choral Union. Between 1971 and 1989, the Choral Union, a group of around forty non-professional singers under the direction of James Chapman, produced four recordings of nearly 100 hymns, anthems, fuging tunes, and secular pieces published between 1790 to 1810 by Vermont composers.
"Vermont Harmony 1": The complete works of Justin Morgan's works and a sampling of the seven other Vermonters presented in succeeding volumes. Revised edition, 1990. (Cassette format.) *
"Vermont Harmony 2": Selected works of Jeremiah Ingalls and Hezekiah Moors. (LP format.) *
"Vermont Harmony 3": Selected works of Elisha West, Ebenezer Child, and Eliakim Doolittle. (LP format.) *
"Vermont Harmony 4": Selected works of Joel Harmon, Jr. and Uri K. Hill. (Cassette format.)
The Universal Pickers: "Original Sacred Harp." This collection of 15 Sacred Harp tunes on cassette tape is sung by a quartet of young men from Georgia who generally perform old timey/bluegrass music, but who also love a cappella singing and feel that Sacred Harp, which they were taught to sing by Hugh McGraw, is "the ultimate."
"Harp of Heritage: Psalm Tunes Folk Hymns, and Fuging Pieces," sung by the Harp of Heritage Singers, directed by R. Paul Drummond. This overly brief (26 minute) recording contains 17 folk hymns and fuging tunes recorded in 1978 by 20 singers from the Harmony Plains Singing School in Texas, under the auspices of the Primitive Baptist Church.
Recordings by the Boston Camerata, directed by Joel Cohen. The Boston Camerata is a professional early-music chamber group of singers and instrumentalists which has produced a substantial number of recordings of medieval and Renaissance music, Christian, Jewish, and secular (see the Schwann Opus catalog for listings).
"Trav'ling Home: American Spirituals 1770-1870", performed by The Boston Camerata, The Schola Cantorum of Boston, and The Brown University Chamber Chorus, directed by Joel Cohen. This 1996 CD (Erato #0630-12711-2) features 28 selections spanning musical styles from late 18th-century New England tunebooks to sweeter music of mid/late 19th-century America.
"An American Christmas: Carols, Hymns, and Spirituals, 1770-1870," sung by The Boston Camerata with other groups. Erato #4509-92874-2. This CD issued in mid-1993 contains 25 bands which include music from several shape-note tunebooks, including The American Harmony, The Southern Harmony, The Sacred Harp, Wyeth's Repository, and Ingall's Christian Harmony, and The New Harp of Columbia. Many but by no means all of the songs have a Christmas theme.
"Sing We Noel: Christmas Music from England and Early America," sung by The Boston Camerata. (Elektra-Nonesuch 9-71354-2.) The popular LP, issued in 1978, is currently available as a CD. Most of the recording is medieval and Renaissance English music, but there are three American shape-note selections, The Midnight Cry, Sherburne, and Fulfillment, which also happen to be on the Camerata's 1993 Christmas album listed above.
"The American Vocalist: Spirituals and Folk Hymns, 1850-1870," sung by The Boston Camerata and other groups. This late-1992 CD (Erato #2292-45818-2) contains 25 folk hymns and songs, mostly found in two mid-19th-century Northern tunebooks.
"New Britain: The Roots of American Folksong," sung by The Boston Camerata, Joel Cohen, director. Compact disc on the Erato label, #2292-45474-2; cassette tape, #2292-45474-4. This collection seeks to trace the origins of early North American folk tunes to even older tunes of Europe and the British Isles.
"Simple Gifts: Shaker Chants and Spirituals," sung by the Boston Camerata, Schola Cantorum, and Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Erato CD 4509-98491-2. A cassette version is said to be available also.
"Angels: Voices from Eternity," (Released 1997) See Chapter 8: Recordings with Arrangements or a Few Shape-Note Tunes
Recordings by His Majestie's Clerkes, Anne Heider, permanent artistic director. His Majestie's Clerkes, founded in 1982, is a chamber choir based in Chicago and specializing in classical a cappella music, particularly early and contemporary European music.
"Goostly Psalmes: Anglo-American Psalmody 1550-1800," by His Majestie's Clerkes, conducted by Paul Hillier. This beautiful 1996 CD recording (61 minutes), traces the development of harmonized hymn- and psalm-singing from British sources (Tans'ur, Farmer, Parsons, Dowland, Knapp) and follows its development in the American colonies (Massachusetts Bay Psalm Book, Billings, Morgan, Wood, Swan, Read, etc.).
"A Land of Pure Delight: William Billings: Anthems and Fuging Tunes," by His Majestie's Clerkes conducted by Paul Hillier. This wonderful 1992 CD and cassette contains 16 songs and anthems by William Billings (1746-1800), the foremost early New England composer, many of whose most beautiful works are not in shape-note tunebooks.
"In a Cold Winter's Night," performed by His Majestie's Clerkes, directed by Anne Heider and Richard Lowell Childress. This 1988 CD is a collection of Christmas and winter music, including Judea and Shiloh by Billings, the folk hymn Morning Star from Southern Harmony, and Sherburne by Read.
"William Billings, the Continental Harmonist," performed by the Gregg Smith Singers conducted by Gregg Smith. This CD, a reissue of an older LP, includes performances of Chester, Easter Anthem, I Am the Rose of Sharon, David's Lamentation, and other sacred and humorous secular works, generally different from those on the His Majestie's Clerkes CD above.
Recordings by Professor Chalaupka's Celebrated Singing School and
"Brightest and Best: Early Christmas Music from Canada and the United States." "The songs and sounds of 100 Christmases past, shape-note hymns, folk songs, and even dance music of the season, presented as they might have been heard in the meeting house, lumber camp, parlour, or tavern."
"Singing in a Strange Land: Shape Notes and Homespun Harmonies from Waterloo County." Cassette only, JSH001. The brochure states: "Both traditional and freewheeling arrangements of Singing School Music from Waterloo County, Ontario. Originally produced for the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum in Kitchener.
"Better Land: Songs of Maritime Canada and New England 1750-1850," sung by The Elastic Millennium Choir of Halifax, Nova Scotia. This CD, released in 1996, contains 26 tracks. Faye Armstrong writes: "The singing school tradition flourished in Nova Scotia until the early years of this century. The works of Read, Morgan, Billings, and Ingalls were popular, and may have inspired some of the local composers.
"America Sings," vol. 1, The Founding Years (1620-1800), sung by the Gregg Smith Singers conducted by Gregg Smith. This 1993 release (Vox Box CDX 5080) is a 2-CD set that is a reissue of a four-LP Vox Box of 1976. This is a rich and varied collection, having about 76 pieces of early New England sacred and secular music, sung by a disciplined choir which has championed American music.
"Christmas in Early America: 18th Century Carols and Anthems," by the Columbus Consort, directed by Joseph Pettit. This 1993 CD (Channel Classics CD CCS 5693) contains 18 compositions by such composers as Supply Belcher, Samuel Holyoke, Joseph Stephenson, Jacob French, William Billings, and several Moravian composers.
Complete songs from the Missouri Harmony performed
on an electronic keyboard by David Ressler. Mr. Ressler has prepared
renditions of every song in the Missouri Harmony, 1846
edition, generated electronically with a different sound for each
part to enable one to follow a given part.
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