Vital Sparks: Ye heedless ones

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Will Fitzgerald

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Dec 18, 2025, 10:37:20 AM12/18/25
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I just sent out my latest Vital Sparks issue, part 2 of looking at secular songs in the Sacred Harp. I'd be glad to hear comments and corrections, as always!


Will

Robert Vaughn

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Dec 18, 2025, 11:04:35 PM12/18/25
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Hi, Will,

I have read with interest your two essays on secular songs in The Sacred Harp. They address some interesting points, and, no doubt, some things that are currently on the minds of singers.

I have taken a look at this from a similar but slightly different angle. I looked at the new songs by living composers which were added to the 1991 and 2025 editions of The Sacred Harp. Rather than secular and sacred, I divided the texts into 3 categories: (1) texts that might be generally accepted in principle by singers with any religion or no religion; (2) texts that might be generally accepted in principle by singers who believe in “God” or a higher power, though not necessarily the Christian God; (3) texts that might not be generally or readily accepted as truth by those who are not Christians.

I won’t go into great detail at this time, since it is getting late, but briefly, the first category would be texts such as “Death has laid them down to slumber…” which you mentioned in the second essay, or perhaps “My days are as the grass.” Many, even non-religious people, well understand that our time on earth fleeting and will end in death. There will be no argument against this being true.

In the second group I looked at songs I thought were clear about a God, sovereign, or higher power, but did not land specifically on New Testament themes. These might be acceptable to folks with a wider range of theistic beliefs than songs in the third category, which would require acknowledging they are about Jesus as God, Saviour, Messiah, etc.

So, my results were of songs by living composers in 2025: Category 1, 12 songs; Category 2, 38 songs; Category 3, 31. Looking at it this way, 62% of the new songs tend toward more generic texts, that might facilitate being acceptable to non-Christians. I used this same idea to look at the songs by living composers added in 1991. I do not have an official list but I located 38 songs by 22 living composers. Of these 38, I found zero that I thought fit Category 1, and 12 in Category 2. The rest would be Category 3. Looking at it this way, the percentage of less specific songs in 1991 (32%) is about half that of 2025 (62%).

There is a certain degree of subjectivity in what we are doing; and this does not address the context of the texts (i.e., the rest of a hymn that is not included), nor does it address what the composers intended to convey with their textual choices (re, e.g., your discussion of Billings’s art music versus religious music).

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.


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Will Fitzgerald

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Dec 19, 2025, 4:09:35 PM12/19/25
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Robert, 

Thanks for your continued analysis. I considered doing something similar, but decided against it, partly for time, but more importantly, I think, because I realized that what matters is the whole of the book — both what was taken out, what was added in, and what was left alone. If one consider just the changes (added/removed), this is the same as considering the book as a whole (as I did).

I also am sceptical of your category 2 songs; I think I understand why you attempted it, but, as you note, it's hard enough to distinguish even between secular and religious songs, especially in what I called the matrix of the book as a whole. Even secular songs take on a religious/Christian meaning, especially the memento mori songs (which I think was the largest category of the secular songs I identified. And of course, there was the odd case of ROSE OF SHARON!

Best,


Micah Walter

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Dec 19, 2025, 5:04:25 PM12/19/25
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I concur with Will that analysis of the book as a whole is important: the raw percentage of new songs by living composers means nothing unless it be compared with the percentage of songs retained and/or removed from the book. Note that over 75% of the Christian Scriptures (as measured by word count in the KJV) pre-date Christ and consist of “texts that might be generally accepted in principle by singers who believe in ‘God’ or a higher power, though not necessarily the Christian God.” Given that a large number of texts in The Sacred Harp are paraphrases of the Psalms, it should not be surprising that many of the texts in this book, old and new, fall into Robert's second category. More interesting to me is Will's analysis of the Christian matrix in which the whole book is steeped, with "secular" lyrics and Old Testament texts deriving much of their meaning from the surrounding context.

Micah

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j frankel

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Dec 19, 2025, 8:56:13 PM12/19/25
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They're gonna regret taking My Sharona out.  Lotta us regret it.  And Federal Street.  And the Pleyals they took out.

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Carlton, David L

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Dec 20, 2025, 11:49:23 AM12/20/25
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Singer Friends,

 

                A question for those of you who knew Raymond Hamrick: Why did he name a song (“John 3:37”) for a scripture verse that doesn’t exist?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David L. Carlton

Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

2307 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: (H) 615.383.6293 (No Longer in Service) (M) 615.715.6183

E-Mail: david....@vanderbilt.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Robert Vaughn

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Dec 20, 2025, 8:11:53 PM12/20/25
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Hi, Will,

Thanks for your response and comments. 

My analysis does not disregard that the whole book matters, but simply recognizes that some other things can matter as well. 

You are skeptical of my category 2, but seem to dismiss it (as in, just don’t do it) rather than offer possible improvement to the approach. Your view seems to suggest that more/other analysis is neither good not useful. The fact that singers have wanted songs removed and/or words changed to be more acceptable to the whole suggests that there certainly is a middle category in there somewhere between just sacred or just secular. With Micah, I concur that roughly 3/4 of the Christian Scriptures are found in the Old Testament. On the other hand, I also recognize that, for example, Christians and Jews do not interpret the Old Testament the same way. So, there’s that.

You say that even secular songs can take on a religious/Christian meaning in a Christian context, and I don’t disagree. I think Sacred Harp singers have read them that way for most of the lifetime of the book. However, things change, and things are changing. I do not expect that non-Christian singers bring the same context to the book and the songs that I do, or necessarily see Christian meaning in texts where it does not appear in the context.

Thanks again.

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.

Robert Vaughn

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Dec 20, 2025, 8:30:41 PM12/20/25
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Singer Friends,
                A question for those of you who knew Raymond Hamrick: Why did he name a song (“John 3:37”) for a scripture verse that doesn’t exist?

David, that is a very interesting question, and I hope there are some of his friends who know the answer. There are some things like this that have a known, or at least perhaps readily discernible, meaning. For example, “Acts 29.” The Book of Acts ends at the 28th chapters, and some refer to “Acts 29” as the next chapter (continuing) in the history of the church. I am unaware of anything like that in regard to John 3:37. I hope someone knows the answer!

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.

David Smead

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Dec 21, 2025, 12:16:20 AM12/21/25
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The story of how John 3:37 was named is included in John Hollingsworth’s article about Raymond Hamrick and the making of the Georgian Harmony songbook, from the Sacred Harp Publishing Company newsletter:
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Will Fitzgerald

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Dec 21, 2025, 2:50:08 AM12/21/25
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Thanks, David!

To quote from the article:

Throughout this process we were discussing the music with Raymond [Hamrick] and John [Plunkett] was helping Raymond in several ways, not the least of which was to find words for the music. One of my favorite stories, which I am sure Plunkett is tired of hearing me tell, involves song 54. The words were from hymn 337 of a book [Raymond] had borrowed from John, and the notation he wrote at the top of the page was “John 337.” Knowing that chapter 3 of John had only thirty-six verses and needing a title, he added the colon as a joke, so the “John” in the title “John 3:37” is John Plunkett.



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Will

On Dec 21, 2025, at 12:16 AM, David Smead <dsm...@gmail.com> wrote:

The story of how John 3:37 was named is included in John Hollingsworth’s article about Raymond Hamrick and the making of the Georgian Harmony songbook, from the Sacred Harp Publishing Company newsletter:

David Olson

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Dec 21, 2025, 3:02:48 PM12/21/25
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Micah Walter observes:
> concur with Will that analysis of the book as a whole is important: 
> the raw percentage of new songs by living composers means nothing 
> unless it be compared with the percentage of songs
> retained and/or removed from the book.

The 2025 Edition contains 105 tunes for 57 different psalms. Three psalm tunes were removed, and 20 added.

Psalm 005 (3)
Psalm 019 (6)
Psalm 023 (3)
Psalm 039 (2)
Psalm 045 (2)
Psalm 051 (3)
Psalm 062 (5)
Psalm 073 (5)
Psalm 089 (2)
Psalm 090 (8)
Psalm 092 (3)
Psalm 093 (2)
Psalm 095 (3)
Psalm 103 (2)
Psalm 117 (3)
Psalm 122 (2)
Psalm 137 (2)
Psalm 139 (3)
Psalm 147 (5)
Psalm 148 (3)

The new "quotey subtitles" giving Bible verses don't always identity the actual psalm. I suppose one reason is that, in the case of Psalm 90, it gets repetitious, so some other pericope that embodies the same idea is cited. I've copied all of the psalm numbers into my new book, because, loving history, the link to the past is important to me: a past beginning with Psalm 23, supposedly composed when David was still a shepherd boy (but "surely I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever -- there was no "house" in Jerusalem yet, and the Tabernacle had been wrecked by the Philistines) (something to ask ChatGPT about).

The weakest link in the chain is Psalm 137, embodying a self-curse (may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I forget Jerusalem), which fascinated William Billings and inspired him to write Jargon, the first American dissonant choral song. We never sing the end of Psalm 137, because it involves doing to babies what the IDF did to babies in the Gaza Strip, then coming out of nowhere it condemns the Edomites. Isaac Watts, thinking this was unsuitable for Sunday morning worship, skipped Psalm 137 entirely. 

A professor in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Nissim Amzallag, a biologist originally hired to find and develop crops that can thrive in the Negev Desert, also takes a Beersheba-centered view of Biblical history, and has written several articles about the possibility of Edomite singers in the Second Temple. This historical process would have exacerbated the singers still in exile.

For details, see below,

David Olson
San Diego


<https://cris.bgu.ac.il/en/publications/foreign-yahwistic-singers-in-the-jerusalem-temple-evidence-from-p/>
Foreign Yahwistic singers in the Jerusalem temple? Evidence from psalm 92

• Psalm 92 is generally approached as a wisdom, royal, or hymnic song composed for the Sabbath liturgy. The present study, however, reveals that behind this ostensible meaning, this psalm alludes to the integration of foreign Yahwistic singers among the clergy at the Jerusalem temple and the opposition that it provoked among some of their Israelite peers.


<https://cris.bgu.ac.il/en/publications/edomite-defectors-among-the-israelites-evidence-from-psalm-124/>
Edomite Defectors among the Israelites: Evidence from Psalm 124

• The present analysis of Ps 124 suggests that it relates the retreat to Israel of a foreign group of YHWH’s worshipers. Its Edomite identity emerges from its comparison with other Songs of Ascents (especially Pss 120, 122 and 129) and the Adam appellation of their land of origin (v. 2). The setting of Ps 124 in complex antiphony provides further details concerning their fleeing from Edom, their new commitment to Israel, and their Edomite brothers’ angry reaction.


<https://cris.bgu.ac.il/en/publications/psalm-120-and-the-question-of-authorship-of-the-songs-of-ascents/>

Psalm 120 and the question of authorship of the songs of Ascents

• The first of the songs of Ascents, Psalm 120 might be seen as key to understanding the whole corpus, but its content remains poorly understood. This study suggests that its author was a smith-poet committed to the Edomite/Qenite traditional worship of YHWH, here complaining about participating, through the fabrication of iron weapons, in the demise of Edom (553 BCE).



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Carlton, David L

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Dec 21, 2025, 8:35:02 PM12/21/25
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Ho ho!  Thanks David! (and congrats to John Plunkett!).

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David L. Carlton

Professor of History Emeritus, Vanderbilt University

2307 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212

Phone: (H) 615.383.6293 (No Longer in Service) (M) 615.715.6183

E-Mail: david....@vanderbilt.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

From: David Smead <dsm...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2025 10:03 PM
To: Carlton, David L <david....@vanderbilt.edu>
Cc: Discussions Fasola <fasola-di...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [fasola-discussions] Vital Sparks: Ye heedless ones

 

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The story of how John 3:37 was named is included in John Hollingsworth’s article about Raymond Hamrick and the making of the Georgian Harmony songbook, from the Sacred Harp Publishing Company newsletter:

 
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