Joshua Leavitt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joshua Leavitt (1794-1873) was an American Congregationalist minister who later became a prominent publisher of abolitionist materials. He was also a spokesman for the Liberty Party. Leavitt served as editor of the Emancipator, New York Independent and New York Evangelist, and other newspapers. He was the first secretary of the American Temperance Society and co-founder of the New York City Anti-Slavery Society.^[1]

Leavitt published The Christian Lyre in 1831, the "first American tunebook to take the form of a modern hymnal, with music for every hymn (melody and bass only) and the multistanza hymns printed in full, under or beside the music". It later became one of the standard tunebooks used in the 1930s New England Revivalism movement.^[2]

[edit] Reference

• Crawford, Richard (2001). America's Musical Life: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04810-1. 

[edit] Notes