Hello Robert,
I've recently run across two mentions of a song book titled Songs of Zion by
> Elder J. E. Kitchens, ...
> Do any of you know anything about this book? 4-shape, 7-shape? SATB hymnal
> for church? Singing conventions? When was it printed?
Tom Malone may be able to chime in with a great deal more information.
The copy of *Songs of Zion* that I have is an upright paperback book,
staple bound, with a red cover. There is no date on the inside of the book.
It is perhaps 175 pages long. The songs are numbered 1 through 238. There
are songs printed on the insides of both covers. After the songs is a title
and first line index (and then one more song: "Holy Manna"). The title page
says:
J. E. Kitchens
Presents
Songs of Zion
----
Both old and new songs for Church and Family
Worship and for Singing Schools.
----
*"Sing us one of the Songs of Zion."*
Psalms 137 :3
The book mostly contains music in two staves and seven shape notes; it is
mostly drawn from other publications and is a combination of gospel
standbys, new book style music, and music from *The Sacred Harp *(Denson
and Cooper) and *The Christian Harmony* (much of which has been
reharmonized). There are also, however, a good handful of songs in four
shape notes and four staves, all of which were evidently reproduced from *The
Sacred Harp* (Denson Revision). In some cases their titles have been
changed. For example, the "D" from "Detroit" was left as is but the rest of
the word was replaced with "o not I love thee," in a different font and
font-size. Much of the music *not* drawn directly from *The Sacred Harp* is
also evidently copied from other songbooks. The result is something of a
pastiche.
Another handful of songs toward the end are in seven shapes and two staves,
but are original to this book and were written using stencils (which
someone brought to a class Tom taught on Elder Kitchens at a camp a few
years ago). These include a Kitchens tune called "Rock of Love," and a song
called "Hardeman," composed by a singing school class of Kitchens' at
Hardeman Primitive Baptist Church in Decatur, GA with words written by
Sandra Wilkinson.
The copy I have was sold to me by a Primitive Baptist church in Oklahoma
that had once used these books for singing during church services but had
moved on to use a currently available book.
Best,
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
Atlanta, GA
617 984 9378
je...@silversand.org
