B.F. White/ Cooper Book differences?

[Judah Dale]

Greetings!

I'm planning on buying the Cooper Edition Sacred Harp (2012) edition at some point, but doing research on this book has led me to discover that there are three other editions of the same book (and more before, but these are the ones I'm most interested i getting also): from 1992, 2000, and 2006: are there any major differences in terms of hymns/intros/page numbers and what have you between the books? My assumption was that the 2000 and 2006 were just revisions of the 1992 edition, but the 2006 one has a different enough cover that I wasn't sure.

-Judah Dale

[Karen Willard]

Songs were added to each edition and some songs were dropped.

Karen

--
--
Google Groups "Fasola Discussions" Email List
FAQ: http://ej345.com/fasola/Fasola-Discussions-FAQ.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Fasola Discussions" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to fasola-discussi...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/b19df3c7-ace8-45e7-9bbd-e0add224b2c9n%40googlegroups.com.

[Fulton, Erin]

Karen, my impression had been was that no songs were added or removed in 2000. Now that I've dragged it out, Songs before Unknown (p. 42) is stating the same thing. Am I mistaken? 

Best,

E. Fulton.

---

From: fasola-di...@googlegroups.com <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Karen Willard <kayren....@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2026 3:41 PM
To: master0...@gmail.com <master0...@gmail.com>
Cc: Fasola Discussions <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] B.F. White/ Cooper Book differences?

 

CAUTION: External Sender

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/CAGgNWOfYD0ezU8dTw0NU3g2XgbBvjXx6Jr4Pfg_b02qYUG-Aig%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gail Doss]

Judah, I suggest that you buy the most recent edition of the Cooper book as that is the one that will most likely be in use at most singings. 

Gail Doss

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 12, 2026, at 3:41 PM, Karen Willard <kayren....@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/CAGgNWOfYD0ezU8dTw0NU3g2XgbBvjXx6Jr4Pfg_b02qYUG-Aig%40mail.gmail.com.

[Karen Willard]

Prob not. I'm relying on uncertain memory. I know I re-did several songs in 2000 to remove "etc" with actual lyrics.

Karen

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/SN6PR03MB40458D8709A22A13E839FCA0DD60A%40SN6PR03MB4045.namprd03.prod.outlook.com.

[Judah Dale]

Forgot to specify, 2012’s the one I’d like the most, the rest is also like to have speaking as someone trying to build a shape note collection (plus the bold silver lettering on blue of the 2006 ed is very aesthetically appealing to me)

[Robert Vaughn]

Judah,

Here are the details that I have on the 1992 through 2012 editions of Cooper Editions of The Sacred Harp. We thought this was correct at the time it was published in 2015, and I have had no corrections sent to me about it.

1992 Edition. Copyright 1992. Printed by Quebecor, Kingsport, Tennessee. For this edition 33 songs were removed and 36 songs added – nine of which were by living composers. Changes were made on about six other songs. Typesetting for the new songs was done by Marty Phillips of Jeffress Music Company, Crossett, Arkansas. There are 595 tunes and 2 words-only hymns. 

2000 Edition. Copyright 2000. Printed by Quebecor. This printing has 60 songs/64 pages re-typeset by Karen Willard. The majority of changes was the removing of “etc’s” from fuging tunes and replacing with full text. No songs were removed and no new songs were added. 

2006 Edition. Copyright 2006. Printed by Quebecor. For this edition 12 songs were removed and 14 other songs were added (5 by living composers). More pages were newly typeset by Karen Willard. It has 597 tunes and 3 words-only hymns. The hymn “Brethren, we have met to worship” was added to the lower corner of 59. LOVE AT HOME was replaced with the version from the 1911 J. L. White Sacred Harp. A new first line index was added in the back of the 2006 edition.

  

2012 Edition. Copyright 2012. Printed by Colson Printing Company, Valdosta, Georgia. This edition debuted in December of 2012 at the Florida State Convention. It has 14 songs added, bringing the book to a total of 611 tunes and 2 words-only hymns. The text “Jesus Loves My Soul” on 107b was merged into the tune MARTIN, which was moved to page 107. This book is completely re-typeset throughout, front to back, and the page size increased by about ½" in length and width. A few songs were moved within the book to give them more room, but no songs were removed.

Blessings,

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/CAGgNWOdYaPfDhOV6G-_yEH9%2BRj2LEkaVZCXnN_XvgWU%2BqM7jjA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Baltimore Shape Note Singing]

I think it matters why you're buying it.

If you don't own a copy, it makes the most sense to buy the one in most current use, the latest edition. 

Otherwise, you're just buying a "slightly out of date" tunebook that still has most of the same songs 

Kevin 

--