| Series |
Music in American life
Music in American life. ^A223005
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| Contents |
Introducion: In search of tradition -- A venture to the field -- Travels to the center of the square -- "Well, you'll learn": transmission, affiliation, and competence -- "Speaking may relieve thee": texted events and eventful texts -- "A strange land and a peculiar people": mediating local color -- "At home in transience": traveling culture and the politics of nostalgia. |
| Abstract |
A compelling account of contemporary Sacred Harp singing, this book describes how this vibrant musical tradition 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. With the renewed interest in all-day participatory singing gatherings occurring in the wake of the folk revival of the 1950s and '60s, Sacred Harp singing has become a national phenomenon. A powerful musical practice that has drawn together a diverse and far-flung community, Sacred Harp singing has roots in the American South and flourishing branches in New England, the Midwest, and on the West Coast. It has served as an emblem of American history in twenty-first century popular media, including the Oscar-winning film Cold Mountain. Meanwhile, the advent of internet discussion boards and increasing circulation of singer-produced recordings have changed the nature of traditional transmission and sharpened debates about Sacred Harp as an "authentic" form of Southern musical expression. Blending historical scholarship with wide-ranging fieldwork, the author presents an engagingly written study of a musical movement that some have christened "a quintessential expression of American democracy." |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-234) and index. |
| Bibliography note | Includes discography: pages xiii-xiv. |
| LCCN | 2007030756 |
| ISBN | 9780252032141 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0252032144 (cloth : alk. paper) |
