Monday, March 28, 2016

A Rural Southern Easter (Don't miss the second music video)

 BF White

VERBATIM

Benjamin Franklin White, born 1800 in South Carolina, was a Southern music pioneer. His collection of hymns titled The Sacred Harp, published in 1844, was based on shape note singing and became the standard hymnal in the South. Shape note music first appeared in 1801 and quickly spread through the rural Southern congregationalist communities. The music is performed a cappella and has a thunderous and distinctive–almost hypnotic–rhythm with singers divided into sections based vocal range. Each section takes turns leading. White’s book of hymns served as the textbook for the Southern Musical Convention for two decades. The Convention formed in 1845 in order to provide a gathering place for Southern vocalists and to set standards for teachers in Southern singing schools.

The Chattahoochee Musical Convention (formed 1852) and the East Texas Musical Convention (formed 1855) still meet annually and were founded on White’s work and that of the Southern Musical Convention. The Sacred Harp was republished four times by 1911.

White spent much of his life in Harris County, Georgia, not far from Columbus and Pine Mountain. He edited the first newspaper published in Harris County, The Organ, and also served as the Clerk of the Inferior Court.

Bobby Horton performs his version of one of White’s more powerful tunes, Beach Spring, on his Homespun Songs of Faith Vol. 2. Horton is a modern Southern bard. His work has been featured on Ken Burns’s documentaries on the “Civil War” and in several film productions for the National Park Service. His true love is the South and Southern music. This piece is fitting for Easter Sunday. Also below is The Sacred Harp song I’m Going Home performed in its traditional shape note form.
Happy Easter.

 


Brion McClanahan is the editor of The Abbeville Review and is the author or co-author of four books, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers, (Regnery, 2009), The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution (Regnery History, 2012), Forgotten Conservatives in American History (Pelican, 2012), and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Real American Heroes, (Regnery, 2012). He received a B.A. in History from Salisbury University in 1997 and an M.A. in History from the University of South Carolina in 1999. He finished his Ph.D. in History at the University of South Carolina in 2006, and had the privilege of being Clyde Wilson’s last doctoral student. He lives in Alabama with his wife and three daughters. More from Brion McClanahan

6 comments:

  1. There is an older couple who occasionally will sing some sacred harp songs at my little country church. Also, there are still singing's locally.There is a monument on our courthouse yard honoring a very famous Sacred Harp family of singers (Denson's). About 45 miles east, and over in northeast Alabama, there are congregations that sing nothing but fa-so-la. I love this scene from the movie "Cold Mountain" with the music in the background.
    https://youtu.be/qmjt9K97ytc

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  2. I've read about Scottish "Response" Hymns, which was an OLD tradition from the islands of Scotland, and is believed to be the forerunner of American Negro Spiritual music.

    This sounds like it might be a sample of that stuff I was reading about.

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  3. A few months ago you posted some literature from the Old South, I really appreciate your efforts to remind us Southerners of who we are and were! Society in general wants to erase every vestige of our heritage. Again, Thank You for your efforts.

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