Talk:James Landrum White

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I've added material from the article by Gavin James Campbell, so as to emphasize the role of J. L. White in the tumult surrounding Sacred Harp singing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I hope this doesn't overdramatize these events, or neglect other aspects of J. L. White's life. Comments, revisions, etc., quite welcome. Opus33 06:02, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I think the additions are good. Of course, it would be good to discover more things about J. L.'s musical life to add to the article. I appreciate your concern about POV in Sacred Harp. I think some recent work has helped correct some inadverent POV that crept into early Sacred Harp research. I don't think it was deliberate - kind of like when everyone believed the earth was flat, a writer would write based on that assumption with no thought of researching it further. For example, McKenzie actually did research that shows Cooper's altos seem to more consistently fit the old Harp harmonic patterns than James', while everyone had previously assumed the opposite. Another area is that of sort of dismissing Cooper and the southeast Alabama singers as out on the fringes of "real" Sacred Harp, making his revision seem more "illegitimate". This is in fact just based on an assumption, because no one has really researched Sacred Harp's history in that area - when did it arrive, by whom, etc. The idea that the James book was the largest Sacred Harp ever keeps getting repeated to this date, even by people who have discovered that it only had 580 songs instead of the claimed something over 600 (quite a few songs were listed twice in the index; e.g. Red Sea Anthem, The Red Sea Anthem). It definitely was physically the largest book though. One must be careful also because when some people say "The Sacred Harp", they only mean the James/Denson lineage (hopefully not in academia, though).

I will be making one addition about J. L.'s 1909 "Fifth Edition". Based on Cobb, Campbell, and discussion on our fasola listserve (including the owner of the 1909 book Cobb researched), J. L. White's 1909 edition experienced more revision and was released with many changes in 1910, but being completely ditched for the "Fourth Edition with Supplement in 1911". Well, I'll stop rambling and post. - Rlvaughn 02:24, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I made a few more changes after I got into it, including looking to consistently note that J. L. reprinted the 1870 edition (same as 1869 except copyrighted by B. F. & D. P. White). Don't know if I found them all. I have a theory that the 1869 (White & SMC) & 1870 (White & White) editions may play into how Cooper & James could release editions of the Sacred Harp, especially since the copyright had been renewed as late as 1897 (at least for the 1870 book). I haven't checked to see how long it took a copyright to run out in those days, but for now am thinking it would have lasted till J. L. revised in 1909. Also noted the percentage of 3-part harmonies in the White book, and that White did revise it slightly once during his lifetime. I have what I assume is the original and one that is a revision, but I haven't had time to make a detailed comparison. One obvious change is p. 59 (Holy Manna) from the original to a reharmonized version. - Rlvaughn 03:05, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks very much, RLV. I agree that scholarly work on Sacred Harp ought to be very careful about keeping a balance between Denson and Cooper traditions. In this connection, your remarks offer a sobering perspective on secondary sources--you can have good intentions about NPOV, but be defeated if your information is incomplete.

The existence of a 1910 Fifth Edition, and the questions you raise about copyright, are both very interesting. Opus33 00:36, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)