Populist Sacred Musicof the Nineteenth Century

Sacred Music

• Evangelical revival movement• Continued use of music composed by the First

New England School• Shape-note vs. Traditional European Notation• Uneducated vs. educated

Shape-Note Singing

• What is it? • Fa: 1st, 4th (Triangle)• Sol: 2nd, 5th (Oval)• La: 3rd, 6th ( Square)• Mi: 7th (Diamond) • Standard Solfege• European origins (Italy, early Renaissance)• Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti (Si)

• Easy to learn (?)• http://fasola.org/

Written Shape-Note Notation

Musical Reformists

• Educated vs. uneducated• European vs. American

• Shape-note and First New England School considered to be inferior• Billings doing his own thing = bad?• Inferiority complex?

• European ideals• German masters: Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann

Populist Hymns

• Educated composers using European ideals• Thomas Hastings (1784-1872)• Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me

• William Bradbury (1816-1868)• Tune: Woodworth

• Lowell Mason

Lowell Mason

• 1792-1872• Leader of the musical reform

movement• European ideals, but realistic • Music Education in public

schools• Thanks for the job!• Boston, 1838

• Banker turned musician• Publishing ($$$)

• Ex: Nearer, My God, to Thee• Hymns Strophic • Homophonic (Chordal)• Syllabic vs. melismatic

Revival Movements

• Second (Great) Awakening• What was it?• c. 1790 – 1840; enormous

increase around 1820• Methodists, Baptists• First Great Awakening

(1730s and 40s)• Third Great Awakening

(1850s to 1900)• Uh…How many times can

we be greatly awoken?

• Hybrid: religious, social, recreational, multicultural, cross-generational

Folk Hymns

• Aka: White Spirituals• “The Sacred Harp” (1844)• Shape-note tradition• Southern US, Appalachia • Rural areas; Camp

meetings

• Repetitive • No literacy, no problem!

• Ex: Amazing Grace• Ex: I’m Going Home

The Sacred Harp (1844)

Black Spirituals

• Aka Spirituals, Negro Spirituals • (Yes, they’re still published under this category.)

• Traced back to work songs and field hollers• Often call and response• Hidden messages disguised in Bible stories and imagery• Hebrews in Egypt • “Promised Land” “Let My People Go”

• Fisk Jubilee Singers (1871)• Former slaves• University Treasurer/Music Director: George L. White• Performances across country; fascination; novelty

• Ex Swing Low Sweet Chariot (1909)• Youtube: Fisk Jubilee Singers

Fisk Jubilee Singers c. 1872