Fw: Sacred Harp

[Tim Reynolds]

I received this message from Douglas Jennings the other day. He was
one of Margaret Wright's students at MTSU. Does anyone know anything about
the book he describes here? I have never heard of it.

Tim Reynolds
Nashville, Tennessee

Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 4:54 PM
Subject: Sacred Harp

> My cousin came in from Atlanta today, and handed me a very small Sacred
> Harp. Inside it is inscribed, "To L. H. Bethel (who is my great-great
> grandfather) from J. M. D. Cates, February 24, 1870." The book is
> copyrighted in 1867 by J. M. D. Cates. There are no musical notes, only
> words in the book. Are you familiar with this book? . . .
>
> Douglas Jennings

[Richard Hulan]

Joseph Marion Dixon Cates was a Baptist from Warren and Cannon
counties, TN who published hymn books (this one, and one called the
Baptist Companion). There's a brief sketch and a photo of him in
Sterling Spurlock Brown, History of Woodbury and Cannon County, Tenn.
(Manchester, TN: Doak Printing Company, 1936), pp. 227-29.

I haven't seen either of his hymn books, however.

Dick Hulan
Spfld VA

[Will Fitzgerald]

From:
Baptist Hymn Writers and Their Hymns
By Henry Sweetser Burrage
Published 1888
Brown Thurston & company

http://books.google.com/books?id=_tcNAAAAYAAJ

J. M. D. CATES.
1815-1887.

REV. J. M. D. CATES was born in Orange County, N. C., June 5, 1815.
His ancestors came to Virginia
from England in the early settlement of the colonies. In the
nineteenth year of his age he left his
native place for Tennessee, locating first at Maryville, and nearly
four years later at McMinnville.
Here, March 11, 1838, he was baptized by Rev. Noah Cates, and united
with the Baptist church. Near
the close of this year he was married to Miss Ann P. Lyon. With her he
engaged in school teaching in
Alabama and Mississippi until the death of Mrs. Cates, which occurred
October 16, 1841. He then
returned to McMinnville, where in 1842, he was licensed to preach by
the McMinnville church.
February 4, 1844, he was appointed a missionary by the executive board
of Liberty Association. His
ordination followed, October 13. In 1846, he located at Marion, now
Cateston, Cannon County, and
early in 1847, he was elected pastor of the Marion church. Here he was
married in September, 1848,
to Miss M. J. Taylor, and this continued to be his home until his
death, August 1, 1887.

For many years Mr. Cates was active in literary labors, writing
frequently for religious papers, and
from 1874, to 1881, he was the editor and publisher of the Baptist
Messenger. He also wrote and
published several books, viz: "Marriage and the Married Life," "The
Voice of Truth," "Reply to
Ariel." He also compiled three hymn books which were published, viz:
"The Companion" (1846), "The
Baptist Companion " (185-), and " The Sacred Harp" (1867). In the
latter Mr. Cates included twelve
hymns written by himself. Of these the following is number 137:

The sacred day of rest
Has sweetly passed away;
In love and peace, in prayer and praise,
We've kept the holy day.
How pure, and how divine,
The streams of joy that flow
From Zion's sacred hills, to bless
With life and peace below.
How precious to the soul,
Such bliss to feel, and know '
Tis but a taste of rest above,
Where joys celestial flow.
O may our thoughts still dwell
On scenes of pure delight;
May angels guard us while we sleep,
And bring the morning light.
And when life's fleeting sun
Shall set and cease to be;
O may our souls with Jesus rest,
Through all eternity.

Rev. D. B. Vance says of Mr. Cates: "He was in many respects a great
man. As a preacher he deserved the appellation of 'the great
commoner.' The Bible was the man of his counsel."

Four of Mr. Gates' hymns in the "Sacred Harp" had appeared either in
the "Companion," or " The
Baptist Companion," but some of Mr. Gates' hymns in the earlier
collections were not included in the
"Sacred Harp." He had six hymns in the "Companion" and five in the
"Baptist Companion."

[Gabriel Kastelle]

A tunebook connection with Maryville, TN:

William Caldwell's UNION HARMONY was published there in 1837.
Although this year pre-dates most of the active career of out current
hymnist subject, it might be interesting to see if any texts or
variants are found in common in the two, and whether such appearances
might connect the dots in anyone's queries or projects. Caldwell's
tunebook would be something very interesting to see, I think. Richard
Stanislaw's 1978 "Checklist of Four-Shape Shape-Note Tunebooks"
describes it thus:

" 'Selected from the unwritten [!!!] music in general use in the
Methodist Church, others from the Baptist and many more from the
Presbyterian taste' (p. [3])."

The little p. 3 was actually in Stanislaw as shown, and means I think
that this was a quote from Caldwell himself about his tunebook. Wow.
Caldwell's own prolix title runs in full:

"Union Harmony: or Family Musician, Being a Choice Selection of
Tunes, Selected from the Works of the Most Eminent Authors, Ancient
and Modern. Together with a Large Number of Original Tunes, Composed
and Harmonized by the Author, To Which Is Prefixed a Comprehensive
View of the Rudiments of Music, Abridged and Adapted to the Capacity
of the Young."

Maryville's also reasonably close to the sources of the Swans' 1848
Harp of Columbia and 1867 ff. New Harp of Columbia, and John B.
Jackson's 1838 The Knoxville Harmony of Music Made Easy, which
Stanislaw also makes sound very interesting for claimed original tunes
in the rural four shape publishing tradition..... ['publishing
tradition'-- that's not an oxymoron, is it?]....

hmmm....

:-)

Gabriel Kastelle
New London, CT

[Wade Kotter]

This collection is not indexed in the Dictionary of North American
Hymnody, so I can't say anything about it's contents. WorldCat lists
four library holdings of print copies, two of the 1867 printing and one
each of printings from 1879 and 1882. Four libraries have microfilm
copies of an 1880 printing. All of these were published in
Philadelphia. And all of the printings have 530 pp. with 618 hymns and
13 doxologies. The full title is "The Sacred Harp: A New Collection of
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Adapted to Devotional Exercises."

Wade Kotter
Ogden, UT

PS: I look forward to singing with many of you at the Georgia State
Convention this weekend!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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[Wade Kotter]

That's "Dictionary of North American Hymnology," not Hymnody. I did it
again....

Wade

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[Karen]

Wade:

Under the tunename of HARRISONBURG, what the Sacred Harp calls ELYSIAN is found in the Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony 2d edition, which accounts for its being collected by Temperley and included in his Tune Index. (It's also in the 3rd edition of that book). Rachel Harley, in her doctoral dissertation on Davisson agreed with GP Jackson, who called ELYSIAN a folk hymn, that the tune displays folk elements.

I was first introduced to this song (basically as it appears in the Sacred Harp) at my church summer camp evening campfire singing sessions. We were told by the guitar-playing music leaders that it was an early Adventist song. And indeed I've found it in Adventist tunebooks from the 1840s and 1850s and forward.

--Karen Willard

[Wade Kotter]

Thanks, Karen! Another variant of this tune (without words) is found in
a two part handwritten setting in four shapes inside the back cover of
the 1834 journal of an early Mormon convert, whose name escapes me at
present. It stands as the earliest notated music associated with
Mormonism, although the tune doesn't appear in any other Mormon source
of which I'm aware.

Wade

--- Karen <karenw...@mac.com> wrote:

____________________________________________________________________________________
You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total Access, No Cost.
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[Karen]

Gabe--

Don't be so modest and tentative! Searching by text is one of the ways I try to find related melodies when a straight search by tune incipit doesn't turn anything up.

In the books I've examined, the following tunes use the "Burst ye emerald gates" text:

EXULTATION in Virginia Harmony (1831)

BURST YE EMERALD GATES in The Revivalist (1872 ed)

ELYSIAN of the Sacred Harp & Southern Harmony & Christian Harmony & Olive Leaf & Good Old Songs & Hesperian Harp
aka EMERALD GATES in the Seventh-day Adventist books (1850s & 1860s & 1985)
aka THE GATES OF PARADISE in Advent Hymns (1851) & Millennial Harp (1849)

MERDIN in the New Harp of Columbia (1867) & the American Church Harp (1856) & the Christian Minstrel (1846)
aka TRANSPORTING VISION in the Harmonia Sacra (I don't know the earliest edition that included this tune)
aka BURST YE EMERALD GATES in the American Vocalist (1849)
aka EXTACY in the Western Harp (1846 ed)

EMERALD GATES in the Supplement to the *Kentucky Harmony 1st ed. & 2nd ed. & 3rd ed. (1st was in 1820), & in the American Union Harmonist & the Hesperian Harp also used this alternate tune EMERALD GATES

O HOW GOOD in the Revivalist (1872 ed)

*The tune called HARRISONBURG in the Supp. Ky. Harm., which is a very close variant of ELYSIAN, and was mentioned previously in this thread, is not set to the "Burst Ye Emerald Gates" text in the 2nd & 3rd eds of the Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony, but instead uses "Children of the heavenly king Halle hallelujah".

So I'm aware of 6 different tunes that have been used with this text. I've put publication dates with some of the books above, to show that my own studies have not turned up any tune earlier than 1820.

Karen Willard

[Wade Kotter]

Karen:

Thanks so much for all this additional information. Your index is
invaluable.

Wade

--- Karen <karenw...@mac.com> wrote:

____________________________________________________________________________________

[Nikos Pappas]

Here are some other sources for the tunes, and also a variant of Exultation.

• EXULTATION:

Boyd. Virginia Sacred Music Repository (1818) - VA (p. 37)

A variant of this appeared in Pennsylvania in:
Smith, Henry. Church Harmony, ed 4 (1834) - PA

It appeared in the early editions, at least by the 4th, but was later dropped by the 12th.  This tune is called MIDDLE SPRING

Incipit for EXULTATION
55356(7)u1(d6)6(5)     u1d7u12(34)32

Incipit for MIDDLE SPRING
553(4)56(7)u11(d6)5    u1d7u12(34)32

Smith's book was extremely popular in central Pennsylvania and western Maryland.  The publisher, Henry Ruby of Chambersburg, was also the largest publisher of tunebooks in the area, beginning in the 1830s.  Ruby was also the publisher of the American, or Union Harmonist by William Rhinehart in 1831 that Karen referred to under EMERALD GATES.

• ELYSIAN:

Jones, Lazarus J. The Southern Minstrel (1849). - MS

• MERDIN
  

MERDIN entered the repertory through the influence of Lowell Mason's tunebooks, Mason himself being credited with the arrangement in some tunebooks.

Mason, Lowell and Timothy Mason. The Sacred Harp, ster. ed. (1838) - OH

Auld, Alexander. The Ohio Harmonist, ed. 2 (1850) - OH

Johnson, Andrew. The Western Psalmodist (1852) - TN

Hayden, Amos Sutton. Christian Hymn and Tune Book (1870) - TN

EXTACY appeared as ECSTACY in a later Rev. Samuel Wakefield publication than The Western Harp.

Wakefield, Samuel. The Sacred Choral (1854) - PA

From the publication instances of these tunes, their dissemination follows some clear patterns.  Almost every tune appeared in 4-shape, 7-shape, and round-note notation thus representing a cross-notational reception by (mostly) evangelical churches.  Curiously though, the text did not appear in numeral notation books, nor did the tunes associated with them.

Half of them originated from the Pennsylvania-Maryland-Virginia backcountry area encompassing Harrisburg, PA to Harrisonburg, VA.  These include: EXULTATION-MIDDLE SPRING tune family, HARRISONBURG-ELYSIAN tune family, and EMERALD GATES.  EXULTATION-MIDDLE SPRING did not disseminate beyond this area, and EMERALD GATES only in Houser's Hesperian Harp in Wadley, GA.  ELYSIAN followed the southern route, appearing in South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi, etc. but not in the Southwest - MO, TN, and KY.

MERDIN coming from the Mason brother's publication circulated around the West and the evangelical North, being found in the Great Lakes area, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, but not in the South.

O HOW GOOD appeared in the burnt-over district of northern and western New York.

As with many of these types of tunes, both folk-hymns and popular tunes disseminated to evangelical churches.  The appearance of the text is common to all areas, but the tunes represent regional spheres of expression, aesthetic, and reception clearly dileneated by geography and church (the almost complete absence of Disciples of Christ versions illustrates this phenomenon).  Also, the tunes transcend cultural specificity because of the appearance of these books in German and English-language collections used by German-American and Anglo-American communities from Chambersburg, PA and Singers Glen, VA.

The text and accompanying tunes also follow some denominational trends.  Those from the PA-VA area were used by Methodist and Anabaptist congregations, which later were used by Baptists in the South.  The use of a scientific tune like MERDIN also found resonance in those churches embracing a shift in expression.  This could appear as a measure of taste and prestige by the Timothy Mason at the 2nd Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, or of reforming evangelical musicians such as Wakefield or Hayden, or the scientific notational connotation of 7-shape books from Tennessee.  Renaming the tune as EX(C)STACY also shows that despite a change in musical style, the means with which the conversion process happened does not parallel the shift in musical style, thus raising certain aesthetic considerations.

This is what makes the Mormon variant doubly interesting Wade.  MERDIN appeared in Hayden's final tunebook from 1870, Hayden being the earliest Disciples of Christ musician to compile a tunebook 35 years previous to this work.  But no others are known to have appeared.  Do you know anything about this particular person, his background or history?  It would also most likely correspond with these geographical parameters of tune dissemination.

I apologize for the length of this post, but the subject intrigues me.

Cheers.

Nikos

[Gabriel Kastelle]

Karen and Nikos--

Wow!

Thanks much!

I'm playing Beethoven's Ninth this week (just out of rehearsal now)
and would you believe:

my biggest ear-worm now is ELYSIAN !!

Congrats, Wade... you have indeed stirred things up!

Karen, others, to understand my perspective:
it's not modesty or tentativeness: it's that it's one of my pet
peeves that often one researches a TUNE, and only finds info about the
TEXT, and I get cranky about the conflation of the two. So, after
Wade was so clear initially in asking about the tune, when my only
firm [not tentative] info was a year 1801 and a mid-Atlantic culture
of African Methodists, and that via text, I was just trying to be
clear that that was all I had to say. :-) Just trying not to be
hypocritical, doing what irritates me, and noticing with humor and
giving to all the heads-up that I was behaving unusually for my
musician self by trusting some text history as saying something about
tune(s)-- justified in this case, I think, by the unusualness of the
text meter. Thanks for the encouragement, Karen, of the method, and
Karen and Nikos and Wade for all of your insightful and detailed
findings and commentaries!

-- Gabriel K.
New London, CT

[Karen]

Gabe--

Don't be so modest and tentative! Searching by text is one of the ways I try to find related melodies when a straight search by tune incipit doesn't turn anything up.

In the books I've examined, the following tunes use the "Burst ye emerald gates" text:

EXULTATION in Virginia Harmony (1831)

BURST YE EMERALD GATES in The Revivalist (1872 ed)

ELYSIAN of the Sacred Harp & Southern Harmony & Christian Harmony & Olive Leaf & Good Old Songs & Hesperian Harp
aka EMERALD GATES in the Seventh-day Adventist books (1850s & 1860s & 1985)
aka THE GATES OF PARADISE in Advent Hymns (1851) & Millennial Harp (1849)

MERDIN in the New Harp of Columbia (1867) & the American Church Harp (1856) & the Christian Minstrel (1846)
aka TRANSPORTING VISION in the Harmonia Sacra (I don't know the earliest edition that included this tune)
aka BURST YE EMERALD GATES in the American Vocalist (1849)
aka EXTACY in the Western Harp (1846 ed)

EMERALD GATES in the Supplement to the *Kentucky Harmony 1st ed. & 2nd ed. & 3rd ed. (1st was in 1820), & in the American Union Harmonist & the Hesperian Harp also used this alternate tune EMERALD GATES

O HOW GOOD in the Revivalist (1872 ed)

*The tune called HARRISONBURG in the Supp. Ky. Harm., which is a very close variant of ELYSIAN, and was mentioned previously in this thread, is not set to the "Burst Ye Emerald Gates" text in the 2nd & 3rd eds of the Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony, but instead uses "Children of the heavenly king Halle hallelujah".

So I'm aware of 6 different tunes that have been used with this text. I've put publication dates with some of the books above, to show that my own studies have not turned up any tune earlier than 1820. (It also reveals that my studies are weak on the first two decades of the 1800s, eh?)

Karen Willard