(Harp). Contains the full story of the legend, beautifully illustrated by the English artist, Steve Duglas. Also includes the written music of the suite, which can be played on Celtic or pedal harp or piano.
This authoritative reference work investigates the roots of the Sacred Harp, the central collection of the deeply influential and long-lived southern tradition of shape-note singing. David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan concentrate on the regional culture that produced the Sacred Harp in the nineteenth century and delve deeply into history of its authors and composers. They trace the sources of every tune and text in the Sacred Harp, from the work of B. F. White, E. J. King, and their west Georgia contemporaries who helped compile the original collection in 1844 to the contributions by various composers to the 1936 to 1991 editions. Drawing on census reports, local histories, family Bibles and other records, rich oral interviews with descendants, and Sacred Harp Publishing Company records, this volume reveals new details and insights about the history of this enduring American musical tradition. David Waren Stel is an associate professor of music and southern culture at the University of Mississippi. Richard H. Hulan is an independent scholar of American folk hymnody.
Queenstown, County Cork. 1920 For twenty-year-old Harp Devereaux, life should be idyllic. At university, she feels for the first time in her life that she belongs, her mother Rose is running the Cliff House as a successful business, and her childhood sweetheart JohnJoe is by her side, but the storm clouds of war grow ever darker. For eight hundred years Ireland has made numerous bids for her freedom but now, at last, liberation from British rule is tantalisingly close, if the men and women of the revolution can just hold on. Harp, her family, and her friends find themselves in the thick of the fight, but the Crown Forces are not the only enemy. A sinister force from the past is lurking and will stop at nothing to exact his revenge. The Harp and the Rose is the third book in the Queenstown Series.
The Sacred Harp, a tunebook that first appeared in 1844, has stood as a model of early American musical culture for most of this century. Tunebooks such as this, printed in shape notes for public singing and singing schools, followed the New England tradition of singing hymns and Psalms from printed music. Nineteeth-century Americans were inundated by such books, but only the popularity of The Sacred Harp has endured throughout the twentieth century. With this tunebook as his focus, John Bealle surveys definitive moments in American musical history, from the lively singing schools of the New England Puritans to the dramatic theological crises that split New England Congregationalism, from the rise of the genteel urban mainstream in frontier Cincinnati to the bold "New South" movement that sought to transform the southern economy, from the nostalgic culture-writing era of the Great Depression to the post-World War II folksong revival. Although Bealle finds that much has changed in the last century, the custodians of the tradition of Sacred Harp singing have kept it alive and accessible in an increasingly diverse cultural marketplace. Public Worship, Private Faith is a thorough and readable analysis of the historical, social, musical, theological, and textual factors that have contributed to the endurance of Sacred Harp singing.
"The real Malibu, the one beyond the tabloid stories and the mega-mansions, is a continually surprising place where incredible natural beauty has made it one of the most desired, fought over, and storied coastlines on earth. This book offers a look at the history and nature of this famous seaside community"--back cover.
On any Sunday afternoon a traveler through the Deep South might chance upon the rich, full sound of Sacred Harp singing. Aided with nothing but their own voices and the traditional shape-note songbook, Sacred Harp singers produce a sound that is unmistakable--clear and full-voiced. Passed down from early settlers in the backwoods of the Southern Uplands, this religious folk tradition hearkens back to a simpler age when Sundays were a time for the Lord and the “singings.” Illustrated with forty-one songs from the original songbook, The Sacred Harp is a comprehensive account of a unique form of folk music. Buell Cobb’s study encompasses the history of the songbook itself, an analysis of the music, and an intimate portrait of the singers who have kept alive a truly American tradition.
A compelling account of the vibrant musical tradition of Sacred Harp singing, Traveling Home describes how song brings together Americans of widely divergent religious and political beliefs. Named after the most popular of the nineteenth-century shape-note tunebooks - which employed an innovative notation system to teach singers to read music - Sacred Harp singing has been part of rural Southern life for over 150 years. In the wake of the folk revival of the 1950s and 60s, this participatory musical tradition attracted new singers from all over America. All-day "singings" from The Sacred Harp now take place across the country, creating a diverse and far-flung musical community. Blending historical scholarship with wide-ranging fieldwork, Kiri Miller presents an engagingly written study of this important music movement.
"Written by an art historian who is also a performing harpist, this book provides, in a single source, information on the development of the harp and its technique and repertoire. The first part is devoted to a lucid exposition of the history of the instrument and is documented by over 70 illustrations of carvings, illuminated manuscripts, paintings, and musical instruments. Dr. Rensch traces the harp from its representation on monuments of the ancient East to its present-day form. There is material from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and Greece, with a rich haul from medieval manuscripts and carvings of Western Europe. Harps portrayed by master painters, from the early Renaissance to the baroque period, and some extant harps from the late Middle Ages are also described in detail. There is an extensive discussion of the pedal harp, from the earliest instruments made by Hochbrucker, Cousineau, Naderman, and Erard to harps made in America in the twentieth century by Lyon and Healy and by Wurlitzer. Contributions of the virtuoso harpists of the nineteenth century and important harpist-teachers of the twentieth are noted. Modern use of the harp is also surveyed. The book's information on technical points, special effects, and the like will be of particular interest. A full list of recordings of solo and ensemble music and a carefully chosen list of compositions, graded for school use, are included in the appendixes. There are also a comprehensive bibliography and an index. The material of this book will be of wide interest to the professional musician, the music educator, and the composer; students of the harp will find it a vital source of information."--Jacket.
This book is a philosophical tour through the experience of beauty: what it is, and how the composer, performer, and listener all contribute. It explores -- with insight, patience, and humor -- profound issues at the essence of our experience. A student performance of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat Major, known as the "Harp," serves as a point of departure and a recurring theme. For the layperson the core of the book is five dialogues between Icarus, an inquiring student intensely concerned with fulfilling his highest potential as a musician, and Daedalus, a curmudgeonly, iconoclastic teacher who guides Icarus's search. Three technical articles, geared to the music professional and academic, treat the issues in greater depth. Supplementary online audio files and musical examples. Markand Thakar is Music Director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and a member of the graduate conducting faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University.