Category: News

New Issue of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter

The new second issue of The Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter features Chloe Webb’s fascinating account of the life of Lorraine Miles McFarland, the girl depicted on the cover of Awake, My Soul as well as a preview of the forthcoming shape note songbook the Shenandoah Harmony. A special section of this issue is a selection of reports on each of the five all-day singings and conventions held on the fifth Sunday this past April (and the Saturday before).

Vol. 1, No. 2 Contents:

  • “A Preview of The Shenandoah Harmony,” by Rachel Wells Hall (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
  • “‘Lost Singers’: Help Needed,” by Michael Hinton (San Antonio, Texas)
  • Coming soon: “National Newsletter: Vol. 1, Nos. 4, 5, and 6,” digitized copies of issues of the National Sacred Harp Newsletter (September–November, 1985)

Camp Fasola Summer Sessions

I’ll be teaching this summer at both the adult- and youth-emphasis sessions of Camp Fasola. My classes this year include sessions on leading (with Judy Caudle and Cassie Allen), composing, the role of the arranging committee in Sacred Harp, and the rudiments of music (I’ll be teaching rudiments at the youth session of camp with Lauren Bock). Camp Fasola—Adult Emphasis will be held June 10–14 in Double Springs, Alabama. Camp Fasola—Youth Emphasis will be held July 2–6 in Anniston, Alabama.

Announcing the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter

Late last month the Sacred Harp Publishing Company launched Volume 1, Number 1 of the new Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter—a quarterly online publication featuring singing reports, biographical pieces about Sacred Harp singers, reprints of articles from the National Sacred Harp Newsletter (1985–93), and other news items. The first issue, which I edited, included reports on singing schools held last fall in Belfast, Northern Ireland and Würzberg and Frankfurt, Germany; a reflection on recently deceased singer Lonnie L. Rogers from his daughter, Karen Rollins; a reprint of a 1985 report on the dedication of a historical monument to Sacred Harp compiler B. F. White in Hamilton, Georgia; and more. I contributed a short piece, co-written by John Plunkett, on the use of a sample of a 1959 recording of a Sacred Harp song in a recent Bruce Springsteen song.

You can read the Newsletter, and my introduction, on the Sacred Harp Publishing Company web site. We plan to publish the second issue in the summer.

2011–12 HASTAC Scholars Program

I’m happy to report that I’ve been selected as a HASTAC Scholar for 2011–12, joining six other Emory University graduate students (including three others from the ILA).
As I work this year on the digitization and presentation of a selection of books in the English and American Hymnody and Psalmody Collection at the Pitts Theology Library I am eager to interact with others in the HASTAC community interested in the representation of printed texts, musical notation, and other digitized objects online and interfaces for expressing scholarship in relation to such digital objects. Presenting such work digitally has the potential to engage a general public (of Sacred Harp singers in my case) as well as a scholarly audience. I’m hopeful that sharing this work may catalyze collaborations around the comparison and annotation of digitized objects.

In addition to participating in a conversation related to my scholarship, as an Editorial Associate with the interdisciplinary online journal Southern Spaces, I’m looking forward to sharing my experience implementing new web technologies for a multimedia digital academic journal. I’m also excited to be able to offer occasional updates on digital scholarship at Emory, where our new Digital Scholarship Commons (DiSC) is in its first year.

New Sacred Harp Publishing Company Web Site

Late last week I launched a new version of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company web site, the second redesign since I took over as webmaster in 2008. The new site is built with WordPress and features a customized version of the Twenty Ten theme also used here. The site features a larger main column, more readable text, and a new newsletter section which will feature updates from the Company and posts on Sacred Harp history and items of interest.