Variationt states in "The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition"

[Kevin Isaac from Baltimore]

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]

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

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.

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[Robert Vaughn]

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

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.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/953870724.6234.1771533829538%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Paul Robinson]

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

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[David Wright]

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]

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]

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]

Yes, that repeat is in the first printing.

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Anne Evers (she/her)

anne...@mac.com