Variationt states in "The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition"

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Kevin Isaac from Baltimore

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Feb 19, 2026, 2:57:57 PMFeb 19
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I have occasionally heard mentions of minor revisions made across different printings of the 1991 Edition of The Sacred Harp. While I haven't encountered official public statements detailing these edits, I suspect members of this group might be able to point out specific variations or errata corrected over the years.

I’m currently compiling a shape-note bibliography and would like to document these distinct 'states' or issues. My second entry focuses on the 1991 and 2025 Editions, so any insight into these printing variations would be invaluable.

Thank you for your time and help!

Kevin Isaac

Robert Vaughn

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Feb 19, 2026, 4:29:44 PMFeb 19
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Kevin, I have some of these that I marked in my book when I noticed, but I have never made a list of them. Here are five that I remember. What I list as old is, I assume, a first printing, since I bought that book when it first came out. I have no idea when the newer book was printed.

133. Hebrew Children
Old: Lower brace, first measure words between tenor and bass: “those who’ve wased”
Newer: “those who’ve washed”

187. Protection 
Old: Lower brace, first measure, tenor. First notation is a 1/4 rest.
Newer: same place. First notation is a quarter note, tied to previous whole not.

242. Ode On Science
Old: Title on page 242 (but not 243-244) is “Old To Science”
Newer: Corrected to “Ode On Science”

326 Weary Pilgrim
Old: poet attribution, “John Leland, 1790”
Newer: poet attribution, “Caleb Jarvis Taylor, 1803”

448t. Consecration
Old: fifth measure has a dotted half note.
Newer: fifth measure has a dotted whole note.



Robert Vaughn 
Mount Enterprise, TX
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
For ask now of the days that are past...
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.


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Robert Vaughn

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Feb 19, 2026, 5:32:31 PMFeb 19
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Kevin,

Sorry on "Ode On Science." I had my own typo that needs revision! It was "Ode" and not "Old" on page 242. But the "To" was wrong, placed there instead of "On."

Sincerely,
Robert Vaughn 
Mount Enterprise, TX
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
For ask now of the days that are past...
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

Paul Robinson

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Feb 19, 2026, 11:05:34 PMFeb 19
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There are entire stanzas that changed too, I remember running into this at a singing. Sadly I'm traveling and can't look for specifics right now, but my vague memory is that corrections were made in one reprinting that were subsequently lost/reverted.
--paulr

David Wright

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Feb 20, 2026, 3:38:58 AMFeb 20
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I am not aware of any comprehensive list of changes made across the printing history of the 1991 edition. Most, of course, were in the nature of typographical corrections. At some point an acknowledgement was added to Don Bowen "for continuously searching and finding numerous typographical errors in the 1991 revision", so we may suppose there to have been a fair number of these. From Robert's comment on 326 we see that the changes also encompassed the attributions. (Incidentally, there was apparently an intermediate step in the change to 326 -- I have a book that reads "Caleb Jarns Taylor" and then a later one with "Caleb Jarvis Taylor".)

Below are a few examples, but I am in no way suggesting this is a comprehensive list (particularly regarding any changes to song texts), just to give some idea of the type and range of changes that were made.

A couple of typographical errors in music that were later corrected, to add to the examples noted by Robert, are:
225b -- m. 12, bass rhythm corrected (from two quarter notes to dotted quarter, eighth).
480 -- m. 3, tenor rhythm corrected (from two quarter notes to dotted quarter, eighth). (Change made by late 1996/early 1997.)

A couple examples of songs that had repeat dots inserted or corrected/clarified are 274b (opening measure) and 145t (beginning of chorus). I believe there were other such cases.

The few examples of more substantive changes I am aware of are:
85 -- m. 7, bass part, 1-la changed to 7-sol.
166 -- m. 11, bass part, 4-fa's (on F) changed to 1-fa's (on C).
371 -- first two lines of v.2 changed from "Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly Dove/With all Thy quick'ning pow'rs" to "In vain we tune our formal songs,/In vain we strive to rise". (Change made by mid-2012.)
448t -- choice note (3-fa) in alto on the word "with" removed. (Change made by late 1996/early 1997.)
450 -- chord on the word "rude" (m. 15) changed.

A couple of text changes that are borderline as to whether they are "substantive" or just corrections:
344 -- last word changed from "years" to "year."
466 -- text underlay in alto part changed (in fuging section).

I have also seen one change that actually *introduced* an error(!):
467 -- opening rest changed from whole rest (which would be correct, to fill a complete measure of 3/2) to half rest. (Possibly the intention was to correct the *placement* of the whole rests, which were hanging from the second line of the staff, rather than the middle line.)

Beyond the few cases noted above, I have no information regarding the dates of any changes.

--David W. (Seattle)

Kevin Isaac from Baltimore

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Feb 20, 2026, 8:16:07 AMFeb 20
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Anne, David, and Robert,

Thank you for the terrific feedback. I have compiled all the "points" provided so far into a Google Doc to help identify the first state of the 1991 Edition (against later states). I have attempted to render the formatting consistently, adhering to a standard of "Page Number and Song Title:" followed by a clear description written as a sentence. I hope I haven’t introduced any new errors in the process:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vDimxnDMTpvrUgsWoddQkss3Nft-AmEoUhJxjieSuSc/edit?usp=sharing

I wanted to quickly compile these for others looking on so they can see what has been noted and share any variants that haven't been documented yet. You're welcome to add a comment on the document itself, or as part of this conversation here, of course.

Paul! If you remember what that might be at some point, I'd be keen to note something like a change that was made in a later revision that was then changed again! Not present in the Google Doc is an introduction where I make note of David's observations of the evolving attributions to 326.

Kevin

Will Fitzgerald

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Feb 20, 2026, 8:22:14 AMFeb 20
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In the first? printing of the 1991 edition, 320 FUNERAL ANTHEM has an end repeat (back to the 3/2 section) which was later removed. (I learned this when I tried to lead a class to take the repeat :) )

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Anne Evers

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Feb 20, 2026, 8:33:59 AMFeb 20
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Yes, that repeat is in the first printing.

Charles Biada

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Feb 20, 2026, 12:15:22 PMFeb 20
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371 -- first two lines of v.2 changed from "Come, Holy Spirit, heav'nly Dove/With all Thy quick'ning pow'rs" to "In vain we tune our formal songs,/In vain we strive to rise". (Change made by mid-2012.)

My copy, purchased in January 2010, contains "In vain we tune our formal songs," so we can push this date back a few years. Was this edit not later reverted? 

Robert Vaughn

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Feb 20, 2026, 1:48:47 PMFeb 20
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Could someone clarify on 371 Heavenly Dove? My "newer printing" is before this change.

Did they only change the first two lines? Does the fuge still have "Come, shed abroad a Savior's love..." or does it change to "Hosannas languish on our tongues..."?

Thanks!
Robert Vaughn 
Mount Enterprise, TX
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
For ask now of the days that are past...
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

Micah Walter

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Feb 20, 2026, 2:09:04 PMFeb 20
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Only the first two lines of verse 2 were changed. (Possibly someone thought having the first part of both verses be the same was strange or in error.) As Charles suggests, the change was reverted in subsequent printings.


Robert Vaughn

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Feb 20, 2026, 2:52:58 PMFeb 20
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Thanks. That makes sense. The newer book I have may be after the change was reverted back to the original, rather than before the change was made.


Robert Vaughn 
Mount Enterprise, TX
Ask for the old paths, where is the good way
For ask now of the days that are past...
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land.

Dan Thoma

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Feb 20, 2026, 9:32:36 PMFeb 20
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David wrote:

  • 85 -- m. 7, bass part, 1-la changed to 7-sol.
I noticed when we sang this in Seattle last weekend, it's reverted to 1-la in the 2025 edition. I'm not sure if that was intentional or unintentional.

Sincerely,
Dan Thoma

Peter Schinske

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Feb 21, 2026, 3:03:35 AMFeb 21
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Wow,  I knew that there were changes but I had no idea that there were so many. Here are some more I noticed:
- 36t America: Lyrics are set as though it was a three verse plain tune, with first verse under treble, second under alto, third under tenor. Later changed to just the first verse under all four parts to elucidate fuging entrances, as shown in Bremen's scans of the 1991
- 131b Invocation (First): "Triuiumphant" changed to "Triumphant"
- 162 Plenary: "Hark! from the tombs" changed to "Hark! from the tomb". I guess we're used to singing about Jesus' singular tomb, but in this case, it's referring to _our_ tombs, so the 2025 has correctly changed it back to the original "tombs".

Among the stack of loaner books in our attic, I have some books that only have some of those corrections:

Fifth printing?
Seattle has some permanent 1991 loaner books which are a bit strange (the story I heard, which may be wrong, was that Hugh McGraw found some minor printer errors, e.g. pages that were misaligned, which were enough for him to feel uncomfortable selling it. The title page has been torn out and "LOANER" has been scrawled on the cover in sharpie). They seem to have the "first printing errors" only on the following songs:
- 36t: early lyrics setting
- 131b: "Triuimphant"
- 166: F instead of C

Fourth printing?
A while back, someone who wasn't singing anymore gifted Seattle some books from early printings. A book labeled with the name "Armand" has all the above "first printing errors", and also:
- 85: bass part, seventh measure, first beat is an F# (1-la)
- 145: incorrect second-half repeat
- 162: "Hark! from the tombs"
- 225b: bass part has quarter notes
- 326: text attribution is "Caleb Jarns Taylor, 1803"
- 344: "years"
- 404: dotted rhythm in tenor
- 428: incorrect slur in bass part
- 450: "rude" chord has choice note in bass, 2-sol in alto, choice note in treble
- 466: alto fugue entrance words are "Our knees have often bent, And God has"
- 467: whole rests at beginning
For this printing (and all earlier ones) the font on the acknowledgements page matches the rest of the front matter, and Don Bowen's name is not mentioned. I guess when they re-typeset the Acknowledgements page they used Times New Roman (or similar) instead of the font used for everything else

Third printing?
My dad's book, bought at the 1993 New England convention, has all the above "first printing errors", and also:
- 109: "Carnsvillle" with three L's
- 320: has repeat
- 326: text attribution is "John Leland, 1799"
- 567: all verses labeled as verse 1

Second printing?
One book, labeled with the name "Gloria", has almost all the "first printing errors" in the google doc. There are only two differences between this book and the google doc list:
- In Gloria's book, 326 has a text attribution of "John Leland, 1799"
- In Gloria's book, 456's slurs are all correct

Of course I could easily be missing an in-between printing. Unfortunately I don't know where/when Armand or Gloria got their books.

One weird thing: of the books I have in front of me, only Gloria's book has 480 as described in the google doc. The google doc says that the correction happened in 1996 or 1997, but I think it must have been much earlier than that; it must have between Gloria's printing and my dad's. My favorite 1991 typo, "Lord Forus" instead of "Lord For us", only shows up after that tenor rhythm is corrected (as a kid I always wondered who Lord Forus was, and why he was crucified).

I know of only one typo that lasted throughout all printings of the 1991: "partriarchs" in the dedication.

Wow sorry for the long post. Hopefully this can elucidate some changes between early printings. I guess this is one benefit of being stuck with all these 1991 loaners.

--Peter Schinske

Kevin Isaac from Baltimore

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Feb 28, 2026, 7:05:47 PMFeb 28
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Thank you so much everyone for the feedback! What an impressive compilation here.

Kevin Isaac

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