evolution in harmonic tastes

[Karen Willard]

I came across something that I thought would be interesting to share.  William Walker had included MEDITATION in his Southern Harmony (#4t in 3-part harmony) but when it came time for his 1866 Christian Harmony (#207b), he took a second look at it (and added an alto part). Here is what he said in a footnote in 1866: "The harmony of this tune has been corrected and improved expressly for this work."

The changes were:

Treble: m. 1, 2nd note changed from A to G  (clash with tenor), 3rd note changed from G to A (clash with tenor); m. 7 3rd & 4th notes changed from A’s to E’s (clash with tenor)

Bass: m. 4, 2nd note changed from C to G (clash with treble); m. 10, 2nd & 3rd notes changed from E’s to D’s (clash with treble)

All of these corrections were to remove vertical intervals of a 2nd.

--
Karen Willard

(not "kayren"; long story, that...)

[Mark Wingate]

To the group,

I'd love to hear folks' thoughts on these categories of clashes:

* cherished -- perhaps inadvertent, but inexplicably delicious

* dreaded -- typo or oversight, but there it is, nevertheless.

* overridden consciously -- everybody knows to sing something else

* overridden unconsciously -- everybody sings something else

I'm sure there are other categories, too.

Mark Wingate

[Rachel Hall]

Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Karen - I think this tune family in particular (MEDITATION, BOURBON, DISMISSION, CONFLICT, and its many cousins including RESTORATION (312b), Davisson's HUMBLE PENITENT, and Hauser's BEGONE UNBELIEF) is one of the most worthy of study if you're interested in reharmonizations.  I'm actually working on a paper about reharmonization and this is the prime example.  In fact, I could probably write a paper just on this tune!

It actually seems to me rather rare that Walker changes parts significantly between Southern Harmony and Christian Harmony - though I haven't studied this carefully, so maybe someone will correct me.  This one is somewhat mysterious.  Why does he "correct" the measures you noted, but not the tenor/treble 2nd in b.1, m.12?  You'd think that dissonance would be MORE significant rather than less because it happens on the first beat of the measure.  In addition, some of the bass changes you noted are really to avoid 9ths between male treble and bass rather than 2nds.  Personally I find 9ths quite pleasing a lot of time but find 2nds difficult to hold. 

For those who don't have the books in front of them, here's the Southern Harmony version: http://www.hymnary.org/tune/meditation_dover

best,

Rachel

ps:  gotta rush off to a meeting but Mark's points are great too!  Will write more...

[Rachel Hall]

This is a really interesting and deep subject, Mark.  For example, I really like the 9th between the treble & bass in m.10 of the Southern Harmony MEDITATION (this was "corrected" in the CH), but would be perhaps in favor of changing the treble in the last measure to either fa fa la (C C A) or 5-la sol la (E G A), if I were to change anything at all. 

The most cherished dissonance for me in the SH is in 163t MORNING - the extended 2nd/7th between alto and treble in m.14-15 (on "-bling shakes").  It's parallel 2nds for low trebles and 7ths for high trebles.  The bass also contributes with the pedal 1-la.  I get chills whenever we sing that.  What do other folks think about what happens there?  Is it appealing/moving to you, or would you be tempted to sing something else?  Is there any local group that regularly sings something else in that spot?

Since I brought it up, I looked up MORNING on p.16 of Pilsbury (1799).  His treble and tenor are almost identical to what's in the current (and 1860) SH.  The bass fugue entrance is different - they start on the 1-la and go up to the 5-la - but otherwise similar.  The (genius!) SH alto was added by SM Denson in 1911.  The Pilsbury alto is completely different.  If I get a chance I'll type up the Pilsbury in shapes & without the alto clef.  There's very little dissonance in Pilsbury, but there is some.  Anyone know how the song got from Pilsbury to the SH?

This history reveals that the subject of adding or removing dissonances from the book, let alone the modifications singers make on their own, is quite complex and fraught.  All the books we sing from - unless you're singing from a facsimile - have been edited multiple times over the years.  As singing spreads to new regions far from the area of traditional Southern practice, the oral tradition of "correcting" books has inevitably become diluted.  This puts more pressure on book editors to "get it right" - whatever that means to you.  My own experience from working with the Shenandoah is that some dissonances really seem to work (the Tenn. Harmony CAPTAIN KID, Davisson's LITTLE MARLBOROUGH, and McKyes' CRUCIFIXION are good examples) while some others, especially ones that occur towards the beginning of a song, just make the song unnecessarily hard to tune.  Occasionally something is clearly a typo.  But it's difficult to sort all that out!  Certainly we (the music committee) spent hours and hours on this and even then couldn't always agree.

What are your favorite dissonances?  Least favorite?

best,

Rachel

ps:  I suppose ones own musical background has a lot to do with this, too... 

[Robert Vaughn]

From: Rachel Hall <rh...@sju.edu>

...It actually seems to me rather rare that Walker changes parts significantly between Southern Harmony and Christian Harmony - though I haven't studied this carefully, so maybe someone will correct me.  This one is somewhat mysterious....

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 12:13:06 PM UTC-4, Karen W wrote:

I came across something that I thought would be interesting to share.  William Walker had included MEDITATION in his Southern Harmony (#4t in 3-part harmony) but when it came time for his 1866 Christian Harmony (#207b), he took a second look at it (and added an alto part). Here is what he said in a footnote in 1866: "The harmony of this tune has been corrected and improved expressly for this work."

When I read this I thought that it would be valuable for someone to study Walker's addition of altos to the Christian Harmony for tunes that were in 3-parts in his Southern Harmony. Warren Steel's Makers of The Sacred Harp shows that some of Walker's altos found their way into the 1911 James Book. My spreadsheet list shows 39 (+ 9 more that kinda sorta looked like some of Walker's to me). Warren's listing only covers those tunes that are still in the 1991 Revision, but I looked at tunes that were in the book in 1911 also (I suppose I added some to his list, though I'd have to look closer to be sure). 

The number of altos coming from the Christian Harmony to the James Book are second only to those found in the Cooper (though far less than half as many as Cooper). This significant number, though, indicates to me that the ideas that Walker had about adding alto parts to songs must have been in play among Sacred Harpers and therefore influencing their thinking on how to proceed with the matter. At least that seems worth looking into.

His glories sing,

Robert Vaughn
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com
For ask now of the days that are past...
http://oldredland.blogspot.com
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

[Robert Vaughn]

From: Rachel Hall <rh...@sju.edu>

What do other folks think about what happens there?  Is it appealing/moving to you, or would you be tempted to sing something else?  Is there any local group that regularly sings something else in that spot?

RV: The ending on Morning is one of the most magnificent sounds in Sacred Harp. I am getting chill bumps just thinking about it. I can feel the trembling shake the ground when we sing it.

The (genius!) SH alto was added by SM Denson in 1911. 

RV: Anna Cooper Blackshear needs to get much of the credit here. Seaborn Denson made a few minor changes, but it is substantially what she wrote in 1902.

[Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg]

PS: The quote from music should of course have started off with "B. F. White"—my apologies for the OCR error!

On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg <je...@silversand.org> wrote:

Hello All,

Rachel Hall asks:

Anyone know how the song [Morning] got from Pilsbury to the SH?

David W. Music had the following to say about this in his 1995 article "Seven 'New' Tunes in Amos Pilsbury's United States' Sacred Harmony (1799) and Their Use in Four-Shape Shape-Note Tunebooks of the Southern United States before 1860," which appeared in volume 13, issue 4 of American Music:

B. E White and E. J. King published the only known reprinting of the tune in their Sacred Harp. The composition opens the second part of the tunebook, which consists "principally of pieces used in singing schools and societies." Their version bears no attribution, and they modified Pilsbury's model by omitting the counter part, altering all dotted-eighth-note-sixteenth-note rhythms (changing them to even eighth-note patterns), and changing the fifth note in the second phrase of the treble part from D to A (m. 5, note 5). They also made substantive changes in the bass at the beginning of the fuging section (ex. 20), and they omitted two choosing notes from the bass that Pilsbury had notated (mm. 12 and 15).

Music argues that this "suggests that White and King probably took the tune directly from Pilsbury and altered it to suit their needs," but acknowledges that another possibility is that White and King had access to a manuscript version presumably copied from Pilsbury. This alternate theory could offer an explanation for the lack of an attribution to Pilsbury in The Sacred Harp. That White was from South Carolina (where Pilsbury published his book) leads Music to suggest that it's not unreasonable that the Sacred Harp co-compiler had access to a copy of United States' Sacred Harmony.

Music's study seems to have been quite thorough but perhaps others have identified tunebooks published between 1799 and 1844 which contained a version of "Morning." Is anyone on this list aware of such a book?

Best,

Jesse

--
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
Atlanta, GA
617 984 9378
je...@silversand.org

--
Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg
Atlanta, GA
617 984 9378
je...@silversand.org

[Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg]

[Nikos Pappas]

Greetings.

I have not found any other reprintings of MORNING myself.  However, in regards to the arrangement, White and King followed standard procedure (at least it seems to me).  People rarely regarded a piece of music as a fixed object in the way that we understand a piece of art music or classical music today.  Rather, a tune seems to have been a negotiation of various sources, tastes, and individuals, being an extremely plastic craft, bended and molded at will.  In particular, most Southern and Western musicians were not primarily composers as we understand New England pslamodists such as William Billings and Daniel Read.  Their tunebooks, rather than most of their tunes, were their composition, extending to the arrangement of pieces by their performative function for congregational, social-secular, or informal devotional use, the number of parts chosen for inclusion (3 vs. 4), the fair-game quality to the presentation of almost any given tune based upon the preference of and source material available to the compiler, as well as the emphasis on arrangement over original composition.

This is not to say that New England compilers did not undergo a similar process in their roles as compilers, but no Southern and Western musician produced a single-author tunebook as we associate with Billings, Read, Jacob French, Supply Belcher, Stephen Jenks, Abraham Wood, Oliver Holden, Jacob Kimball, Samuel Holyoke, and a host of other lesser known individuals.  So, to apply the tunebook as composition phenomenon to Pilsbury, he himself did the same process of arrangement, reharmonizing tunes from earlier sources as well as recomposing some tunes.  Some examples include Pilsbury's transformation of the plain tune TRUMPET by John Cole into a fuging tune, and reharmonizing the older Methodist tune SION as printed as NEW JERUSALEM in A Selection of Psalm and Hymn-Tunes by John Rippon.  In this piece he took the "correct" or functional harmony of the Rippon setting and transformed it into the "incorrect" nonfunctional harmony characteristic of the New England psalmodists.  Many later American psalmodists did the same thing. 

I would argue that at least in the four-shape shape-note repertory, it was perhaps just as common for a tune setting to be unique to a particular collection than otherwise, if only for a particular choosing note, two-note turn of phrase in the counter part, or something else insignificant.  I think Rachel encountered this phenomenon in selecting pieces for The Shenandoah Harmony and tracking down their origins.  I spoke of this type of modification in the earliest version of NEW JORDAN that I found and attached in a previous discussion.  It predates the published version by at least 10 years.   So, for White and King to change a few notes here and there or to change note values remains completely within the tradition.  You could also compare the plain tune THE PRODIGAL SON by Alexander Johnson in a slightly different arrangement in Hauser's Hesperian Harp (http://www.shapenote.net/berkley/150.jpg) with ALABAMA.  Walker never claimed this tune, but it originated first in this source.

So, my point is that there could be an undiscovered intermediary source linking the two together.  However, it's also just as true that it could be original to the tunebook itself and was not thought worthy to mention who did the arranging.

Nikos Pappas

Tscls, AL

On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 5:25 PM, Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg <je...@silversand.org> wrote:

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[P. Dan Brittain]

On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Rachel Hall <rh...@sju.edu> wrote:

>


>
> What are your favorite dissonances?

Towards the end of the first phrase of Arnold. It's the same one that
used to be in New Britain (and when asked, I tell singers to do the
alto to New Britain as it was before the 91 change).





--
P. Dan Brittain
Harrison, Arkansas

http//:pdanbrittain.com

Transcriptions, Arrangements and Original Compositions
Wind Band, Brass Band, Choir, and Ensembles
Commissions accepted

[Henry Johnson]

Rachel, Karen, et. al.- I am not a fan of dissonance in shape-note singing, especially of discords created by added alto parts.  The instance you pointed out in Morning is, however, an exception.  As Robert pointed out, it fits the text.  I would never recommend "singing something different" from the printed music in any song.  By the way, the alto note in New Britain was changed in 1966.    Henry

[Rachel Hall]

Henry and Robert raise excellent points - the power of that particular dissonance in 163t lies in its connection to the text (thanks for correcting me about the authorship of the alto, Robert).  And when Dan mentioned the dissonance in 285t I immediately thought "part of the host have crossed the flood, and part are crossing now," which of course is the end of v.2.  For me, that dissonance works because of the words and association with memorial lessons.  I've never sung 45t the old way - though did just listen to a recording of it - but to me the fact that it's on the phrase "but now I'm found" makes it somewhat less powerful.  Perhaps that's why it got taken out?  Judge for yourself:  http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=4381

Of the three songs I mentioned that are not in the Sacred Harp, two of the dissonances I like most are related to the text (on "groans" and "mortal"; there are others I can think of on "cry" and "die").  The other song, CAPTAIN KIDD from Johnson's Tennessee Harmony, is a different story - it doesn't sound like anything in the modern Sacred Harp at all, and the reason I like it is more connected to other kinds of music I like than it is to singing from the Sacred Harp.  Though even in that song, I find the dissonance works with the text, which is also quite unconventional: http://www.hymnary.org/text/through_all_the_world_below

I try to sing what's written in the red book, though perhaps am not always successful!  There are a few minor songs where I don't raise the sixth - but let's not talk about that, please.  Where I live, people more or less sing the accidentals as written, though I know that's not true in many communities.  My comment about not singing what's written had more to do with the (old) blue book, and also speculation about how people sung from some of the older books and earlier revisions.

Of course, pre-1991, there was no mention of the raised sixth in the Denson book rudiments, or even that songs are not keyed at piano pitch, unless I'm missing something.  Karen brought up the word "evolution" and it seems that books "evolve" in the direction of making it possible for singers to sing according to what the rudiments teach us - so practice and theory align, as in Walker's comment.  Sometimes songs are changed to be more in line with the rudiments (avoiding dissonances and awkward mismatches between text and musical rhythm) and sometimes the rudiments change to reflect common practice.  I do enjoy singing from the old books, though, and sometimes these very peculiarities are powerful and moving.

Any other favorite dissonances? 

best,

Rachel

[Warren Steel]

At 11:42 AM 5/3/2013, Rachel Hall wrote:
>Any other favorite dissonances?

Page 67 COLUMBUS. And I understand there was some pressure to "correct"
these discords in the 1991 book. Fortunately, this road was not taken. What
it reminds us, though, is that contrary to Sacred Harp "myth," accented
discords are relatively uncommon in our music (at least if you accept the
perfect fourth against the bass as a concord).
In 565, HILL OF ZION, the 1966-87 Denson books had a D sharp in the
treble on the first syllable of "abound." This was to correct a discord
with another part, but this had "unintended consequences," and the 1991
music committee restored B.F. White's original line. As you remember, White
never wrote accidentals in his music.


--
Warren Steel mu...@olemiss.edu
Professor of Music University of Mississippi
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/

[Harald Grundner]

At 11:42 AM 5/3/2013, Rachel Hall wrote:

Any other favorite dissonances?

Knowing virtually nothing about music, I can only tell that I love 385t Fight On for "... he'll take thee AT...".

Harald

--
http://www.sacredharpbremen.org

[Henry Johnson]

I don';t particularly like the dissonance in Columbus, but because it was a part of the original composition, I would not recommend correcting it.  Concerning The Hill of Zion, at the same time (1960) that they added the accidental in the treble, they also changed the third note in the bass from fa(4) to la(6) to relieve a discord.  That change has endured.  I have been told that the added alto line in Fight On holds the record for the largest number of added discords.  

--

[Wade Kotter]

I've been following this thread with great interest. It has caused me to think a lot about my attitudes and sensitivities towards dissonaces since I seem to be less sensitive to them in shape note music than most of those who have posted here. Why is that? It occurs to me that one possibility is that I sang a lot of  "dissonant" music prior to becoming involved in Sacred Harp and continue to do so in our community choir. Last night at our community choir concert we sang ten numbers, eight of which included dissonances with one being basically atonal. When I got home, I picked up a stack of the music our choir sang over the last few years and found that dissonances were much more common than I realized. What I'm suggesting is that our attitudes and sensitivities towards dissonance may in part be determined by the prevalence of dissonances in the music we sing outside of the shape note tradition, especially if we sing a lot of such music. Perhaps this is why I'm having difficulty coming up with my favorite dissonances, although after looking at the examples Rachel and others have mentioned, I'm beginning to realize that one reason I like certain songs is the presence of a dissonance in just the "right" spot. If I come across one that I like that's not been mentioned already I'll chime in again.

Wade Kotter

South Ogden, UT

---

From: Rachel Hall <rh...@sju.edu>
To: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Friday, May 3, 2013 10:42 AM

[Robert Vaughn]

From: Henry Johnson <hanst...@gmail.com>

...I have been told that the added alto line in Fight On holds the record for the largest number of added discords.  

Henry, that is pretty interesting in itself. But it becomes more intriguing (to me at least) when we look at the origination of the alto. It seems fairly apparent that the alto by S. M. Denson is just a slight alteration of the alto by W. L. McGee and W. R. McCoy in the Cooper Book. By my count it looks like about ten places where the McGee/McCoy alto introduces a 2nd (7th/9th). Even though Denson altered the alto in a few places, I believe he made only one change where the Cooper Book had a discord, and even there Denson just uses a different discord. By his alteration he also introduces two more discords not in the McGee/McCoy alto. This is even more curious in light of how J. S. James insults Cooper's altos for introducing discords (which they obviously do sometimes) while using some of the same altos that introduce those discords without correction!

Note that I was counting notes that were immediately adjacent to a note in another part, and may not be considering other things that trained musicians would consider a discord or using the terminology others would use. Also I should mention that I am comparing the 2012 Cooper and 1991 Denson. It is possible that these reflect some changes themselves across years of printing.

[John Garst]

For those who may have looked into this:

What proportion of SH dissonances occur on sustained or accented syllables?

John
--
john garst ga...@uga.edu

[j frankel]

I wasn't gonna get into this, but now I am; I stand accused as being
the one who long ago remarked on people producing dissonance where it
wasn't written or warranted. What I meant, as I labored at the time
to illustrate, was:

People singing in the key in which the song was written, even though
it had been pitched somewhere else. This produces mucho dissonance,
however one defines "dissonance" (we'll get to that in a moment).

People singing with warbly "trained" voices, so that their voice kept
moving away from whatever note the rest of their part was singing.
Whatever you think of people with a very wide tremulo (needless to say
I don't like this, to put it mildly), moving off the note will
introduce dissonance, however it is defined.


(And as I get old & my damaged voice has all kinds of failures I
produce some of this myself. But not intentionally, believe me!)


People managing to make a sound against the rest of the group which
sounds like someone dropping a crate of cheap metal dinnerware onto
concrete, or which sounds like the massive squeak a subway train makes
going around a curve if it's brakes aren't well-oiled (& usually they
aren't).


A lot of people jumped in at the time to tell me that what was really
offending me were major 2nds (the interval formed by "fa" & "so"). A
lot of other people pointed out that major 2nds are prominent in
Balkan music, & I like Balkan music. (A friend of mine, not on this
list, pointed out to me that their wife had studied Balkan music in
the Balkans & that major 2nds were only used in the music of a
particular area. I forget exactly where or I'd write it here.)


What I have determined that I, personally, find dissonant are those
examples I gave above, plus anything else that makes my brain say "oh
please stop that".


A prominent example of this is part of a group singing in "just"
intonation, where the intervals are determined by their relation to
the tonic note, which is how I feel music ought to be sung because it
sounds deep & true & a lot of other good things to me, & the rest of
the group singing in "equal temperament", which tweaks the note values
so that if you're playing a piano, you can change keys without having
to retune the piano to avoid sounding really horrible in the new key.
But since people aren't pianos, & can change key without retuning
their vocal folds, people singing unaccompanied by an "equal tempered"
instrument don't need to sing in "equal temperament". But if they
learned/were trained to sing in "equal temperament", then they do,
nevertheless.

And when part of the group is singing in "just" intonation & the rest
of the group is singing in "equal" temperament, you get teeny tiny
differences in the notes produced that sound awfully squeaky, aka
dissonant, to me.

Therefore, most of the stuff being discussed in this thread doesn't
leap forth to me as examples of actual dissonance. What the thread
does illustrate is that if you were taught that a particular interval
is dissonant, no matter how wonderful a group sounds when they produce
that interval in "just" intonation, you are going to call it
"dissonant". Then you have to decide, I guess, whether to "correct"
it or not.

[Rachel Hall]

We seem to have departed from Karen's original comment here...  I'm still working on this tune - so far have transcribed 13 distinct versions!  Fascinating (at least to me).

Just noticed that the Deason-Parris revision (the Alabama book) presumably has a further edit of Walker's CH revision.  I say presumably because I don't have a copy of that but am extrapolating from the 2010 book.  The treble/tenor dissonance that I noted in the next-to-last measure has been relieved by having the treble go down to the mi (in 4-shape, 5-la).  Also the treble low choosers in m.1 are removed and the alto ends the first phrase on the sol, resulting in an ambiguous dyad rather than a minor triad.

Rachel

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 12:13:06 PM UTC-4, Karen W wrote:

[Micah Walter]

Jumping in a bit late here—but I have to say I love just the right "dissonances" in the right places. More generally, just the right balance of dyads and triads, as well as just the right chord inversions, can make a real difference for the listener. Case in point: I love the B-B-E-B just before the fuging in Morning (Denson version). It has always sounded dissonant to me; I almost imagine a mi-2 in there. Of course, it is only a dyad, but the inversion makes all the difference. An added fa-3 or putting la1 in the bass would have spoiled the effect.

My favorite dissonances (defined as struck seconds or sevenths) are:

Denson SH, 375, LOVE THE LORD. At the end of the third measure, the alto lines's mi-2 is exquisite.

Shendoah 243 BALM IN GILEAD. The penultimate measure of each part has the voices soar to the top of their respective range, and on a quartal (fourth-based) chord! la-5 on the bottom, and sol-4 and la-1 above.

[invisibl...@gmail.com]

Micah's mention of Love the Lord raises a question.  The Cooper alto does not have the dissonance mentioned, which is quite radical.  Are there any strong feelings for or against this dissonance?  Altos, how singable is it?  Does your section usually pull it off with confidence?

Matt Bell

[Wade Kotter]

Matt:

This is an interesting question. First of all, I've sung LOVE THE LORD in several different places (but never at a Cooper book singing) and don't ever remember the altos having trouble pulling it off. LOVE THE LORD was added to the Sacred Harp in 1859 as a three-liner; Warren points out in The Makers that this 1859 J. P. Reese arrangement is a variant of HALLELUJAH by John Nash Bereman in Shaw and Spilman, Columbian Harmony, 1829 (presumably also a three-liner.) The alto part in the Cooper book was written by B. P. Poyner and appeared, I believe, in the first edition of the Cooper book, our at least in one of the Cooper book editions that came out before the James book appeared in 1911; Robert Vaughn should be able to clarify this for us.  The alto in the 1991 edition first appeared in the James book where it is attributed to S. M. Denson, but it is clearly based on Poyner's Cooper Book alto, with the only "big" difference being adding this delicious dissonance. The is not the only case where S. M. Denson is given credit for alto parts in the James book that are clearly based on alto parts first published in the Cooper book. I have a question for Cooper Book singers; do you sometimes at your Cooper book singings hear altos from the "Denson book" tradition adding this dissonance out of habit? I imagine that it would stick out pretty clearly.

Wade Kotter

South Ogden, UT

---

From: "invisibl...@gmail.com" <invisibl...@gmail.com>
To: Micah Walter <micahj...@gmail.com>
Cc: Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 11:01 AM

Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Re: evolution in harmonic tastes

[Karen Willard]

You guys keep thinking like vertically-trained harmonists, with all this talk of B-B-E-B...

W.M. Cooper's daughter provided the first alto for 375 LOVE THE LORD in 1902. 

Seaborn M. Denson provided an alto for Joe James' 1911 Sacred Harp. What wasn't admitted then was that apart from three notes, this was Anna's alto. One of the three different notes is the one that causes delicious shivers:  that MI. So if you regard it as radical, look to where S.M. Denson might have picked up radical ideas...

As for how hard it is for the altos to sing it:  easy-peasy. That you even ask again shows your vertical thinking (she said with an admonishing finger-wag). Look at the horizontal alto line -- we are bouncing back and forth on that MI several times. Why should it suddenly become difficult?

And have you ever known a SH alto without confidence?! 

--Karen Willard, 

bi-textual alto

[Karen Willard]

Oops... I was looking at 163 (thanks to the B-B-E-B remark) and my fingers didn't make the transition to the Cooper Sacred Harp alto composer of 375, who was, of course, Benjamin P. Poyner. All other remarks remain pertinent...

[Karen Willard]

Wade wrote:

"I have a question for Cooper Book singers; do you sometimes at your Cooper book singings hear altos from the "Denson book" tradition adding this dissonance out of habit? I imagine that it would stick out pretty clearly."

Yes it happens... and nearly every time it is a violation of SH etiquette which calls for singing from the book in your hands, unless the particular group you are singing with grants exceptions. What usually happens is exactly what you envision: folks singing on automatic pilot produce the more-familiar-to-them notes.  A really fun example, for all except the unfortunate tenor(s), is the "O tell me" measure in the tenor part in 240 THE CHRISTIAN'S SONG. At a Cooper Sacred Harp singing I always hold my breath at this point in the song, wondering if some unfortunate soul...

Karen Willard,

bi-textual alto

On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 7:10 AM, Wade Kotter <wadek...@yahoo.com> wrote:

--

[invisibl...@gmail.com]

Thanks, Wade.  Has anyone seen Bereman's Hallelujah?  I wonder how similar it is.

Matt Bell

[Micah Walter]

I was just listening to a recording of 163t MORNING (Henagar-Union SH Convention, 2006) and noted this dissonance. It is indeed beautiful to my ears!

[invisibl...@gmail.com]

(Oops!  Found an unfinished draft in this months-old thread.  I'm going to bother to send it particularly for my last question.)

Harmony is vertical, and dissonance is vertical.  It seems that when specific notes have been changed from one edition to another, it has often been out of "vertical" considerations.  I raised this specific question because if Love the Lord were to be reprinted in a hymnal not bearing the word "Harp" in its title, it would be necessary to weigh the merits of the two existing altos, neither of which has a claim of originality to Reese's or Bereman's tune.  So if there are people out there who dislike Denson's insertion of the note in question, I would be curious to know that.  That being said, I quite enjoy this dissonance when done rightly.

"So if you regard it as radical, look to where S.M. Denson might have picked up radical ideas..."

I don't know what you mean by this.  To clarify, I do regard it as radical, and not in a bad way.  What I mean is, for a fourth part added to another person's song, it puts quite a twist on the harmony.  Where did Denson pick up radical ideas?

Matt Bell

[Tarik Wareh]

Dear Matt,

Let me chime in just to say that I think the phenomenon of dissonances created by added alto parts is quite widespread beyond those songs with particularly dramatic dissonances that have been most spoken of here.

First a few concrete examples I have noticed recently:

 48t: 3 of 5 dissonances from added alto part

 100: 4 dissonances from added alto part

 378b: a dissonance from the added alto part ("my")

 383: on the top half of the page, 2 of the 4 times the altos sing G, they create a dissonance

In an unscientific sampling of songs in the Denson revision, I have found this frequently enough to regard it as utterly normal (and thus only all the more interesting). Maybe there is some bias in the songs I've chosen for study. Some of the examples above may be passing tones that seem natural or inevitable in a "horizontal" sense; however, my overall impression is that harmonically unusual moments in fasola music are just as often not explicable in this way.

So the added alto parts are, in my opinion, a complex topic I am not ready to address. I need a much sounder basis before I am ready to say how their language relates to the sound and texture of the interwoven parts that were there before. This is one reason why I've decided to focus my study for a while on the harmony of three-part songs. Their "harmonic taste" includes enough dissonance to chew on, as I saw most recently in SALUTATION.

Tarik

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Robert Vaughn]

Tarik,

By way of adding to what you mention, I looked at the sources of the altos in question. 

48t:  Christian Harmony (1 note difference and that note introduces a dissonance in the James/Denson version not in CH; 1st note in 11th measure)

100:  Not credited to anyone in the James book; is not Christian Harmony, New Harp of Columbia, or Olive Leaf. To me it is similar enough to the alto in the Cooper Book that it may have been used as a guideline.

378b: W. R. McCoy/Cooper Book

383:  Anna Blackshear/Cooper Book

To me it seems like this tendency for the added alto to create dissonances is present in the alto of the Cooper Book, Christian Harmony, and those written by S. M. Denson. In BOWER OF PRAYER, whoever wrote that alto has dissonances in places where they are not in the Cooper Book. I noticed the MI against the FA  in the second measure of the lower brace, and the MI against the LA-FA in the third measure.

For whatever its worth.

His glories sing, 

Robert Vaughn
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com
For ask now of the days that are past...
http://oldredland.blogspot.com
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

---

From: Tarik Wareh <twa...@gmail.com>
To: invisibl...@gmail.com
Cc: Karen Willard <kayren....@gmail.com>; Micah Walter <micahj...@gmail.com>; Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 3:46 PM

Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Re: evolution in harmonic tastes

[ip...@spiretech.com]

Greetings,

The following may be of interest
(if you have not read it already).

Best wishes,

David Jensen

Wallace McKenzie
The Alto Parts in the "True Dispersed Harmony" of the Sacred Harp Revisions
http://pacificnwsacredharpsingers.org/altoarticle.pdf

> What I mean is, for a fourth part added to another
> person's song, it puts quite a twist on the harmony.
>

> Matt Bell

[Rachel Hall]

Here's an addition to this discussion, started more than three years ago! I gave a talk on harmonizations of this tune at the Fourth International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music at the New School, NYC last week. Here are the musical examples from the talk. I was so fortunate to have help, both from my co-panelists and the NYC singers.

https://soundcloud.com/rachel-wells-hall/100-years-of-bourbon

The versions are

Freeman Lewis; Beauties of Harmony, (1814), melody only

Freeman Lewis' Beauties of Harmony (1814), four parts

William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835)

William Walker's Christian Harmony (1867)

D.H. Mansfield's American Vocalist (1848)

Durand and Lester's Hymn and Tune Book, for Use in the Old School or Primitive Baptist Churches (1886)

J. R. Daily's Primitive Baptist Hymn and Tune Book (1902)

On Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 12:13:06 PM UTC-4, Karen W wrote:

I came across something that I thought would be interesting to share.  William Walker had included MEDITATION in his Southern Harmony (#4t in 3-part harmony) but when it came time for his 1866 Christian Harmony (#207b), he took a second look at it (and added an alto part). Here is what he said in a footnote in 1866: "The harmony of this tune has been corrected and improved expressly for this work."

The changes were:

Treble: m. 1, 2nd note changed from A to G  (clash with tenor), 3rd note changed from G to A (clash with tenor); m. 7 3rd & 4th notes changed from A’s to E’s (clash with tenor)

Bass: m. 4, 2nd note changed from C to G (clash with treble); m. 10, 2nd & 3rd notes changed from E’s to D’s (clash with treble)

All of these corrections were to remove vertical intervals of a 2nd.