WELCH v. SICILY in the Walker tradition

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Leland Ross

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May 26, 2025, 8:41:55 PMMay 26
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Anybody here able to explain how, when, or why the Walker-tradition books transitioned from 109 Welch [= AR HYD Y NOS] (There's a friend above all others) in the 1854 Southern Harmony >>to>> 507b Sicily [= SICILIAN MARINERS] (One there is above all others) in the 2010 Christian Harmony?

Also, does anyone have or feel up to creating a good alto part for WELCH? Duncan Vinson uses Walker's three part arrangement in his Liturgical Harp. I'm planning on using it in Sankta Harmonio, but would welcome an alto.

Leland


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Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo (呂須•春男)
Delegito en Seattle, Universala Esperanto-Asocio
My Hymn Blog | Mia Himna Blogo — The Seattle Esperanto Society
Sankta Harmonio (formnotacia libro plurlingva) — Biblioteko Culbert

Karen Willard

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May 26, 2025, 10:44:22 PMMay 26
to rosh...@gmail.com, Fasola Discussions
Leland: 

Try going to Archive.org to get at least one of these books. I have found the tune in a variety of books, but have found only three that have it in 4-parts:

The Jubilee Harp by A. T. Gorham, 1866
     1867 printing owned by Dick Hulan, loaned so I could index it. This is identical to the 1866 printing I indexed from the UMI microfilm 1867 printing available at Loma Linda University Library and Jenks Collection at Aurora Univ.
    Tune name = EVAN pg 537 in 4-parts, attributed to Welch Melody

The Sacred Harp: or Eclectic Harmony by Lowell Mason, 1844
     Tune name = “When the Spark of Life is Waning” pg 190 in 4-parts

The New Sacred Harp by BF White and James White, 1884
     Facsimile purchased from Gaylon Powell:
     “Don and Karen Clark of Lafayette, Alabama, are the owners of one of the few remaining copies of this book. I would like to thank them for providing the copied pages of their book to make this facsimile reprint possible.”
            Gaylon L. Powell, Austin, Texas”
     Tune name = “Absent Friends” pg 15, in 4-parts, attributed to Welsh Air

This is the tune incipit using DOREMI initial letters: DTLDRDTSLTTD and is what I used to find the other appearances in my tune index.

Karen Willard


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j frankel

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May 26, 2025, 11:38:47 PMMay 26
to Leland Ross, Fasola Discussions
I can always come up with a good alto part for anything, but I can't write 'em down.

Leland Ross

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May 27, 2025, 12:58:23 PMMay 27
to Karen Willard, Fasola Discussions
Thanks, Karen. Do you recall if the other parts are the same as Walker gave in 1835?

And I am also interested in why and when the Walker line gave up on WELCH, and also when they added SICILY.

Leland
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Leland Ross

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May 27, 2025, 1:14:22 PMMay 27
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😆

Karen Willard

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May 27, 2025, 1:17:48 PMMay 27
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I only tracked the incipit. You'd have to look at the books.

Karen


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Leland Ross

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Jun 2, 2025, 11:29:10 AMJun 2
to Fasola Discussions, Karen Willard
Thanks for the leads, Karen. Addressing you in your role as The Alto, what's your opinion of the one just produced by Lukaš? (Any others altos present are welcome to provide feedback, too.)

Leland 

Robert Vaughn

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Jun 2, 2025, 11:03:12 PMJun 2
to Fasola Discussions, Karen Willard, Leland Ross
“And I am also interested in why and when the Walker line gave up on WELCH, and also when they added SICILY.”

Leland, did any address this question? I have not noticed. I cannot say anything about the “why” but here is a bit on the when.

The Southern Harmony has WELCH and does not have SICILY.
The 1873 Christian Harmony has SICILY and does not have WELCH.

I am unsure of the first printing of Walker’s Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist – but it does not have SICILY (or WELCH, but it was intended as a supplement to The Southern Harmony).

So, it looks like Walker first added this tune to The Christian Harmony.



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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