Talk:Southern Harmony
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I wanted to get something started on The Southern Harmony. It could use a lot of work. I brought some stuff over from the Sacred Harp article, being material that Southern Harmony and Sacred Harp have in common. - Rlvaughn 21:50, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
Shaped-Note Singing
Southern Harmony
I believe the subject title should be changed to Shaped-Note Singing as a more general and inclusive title. The music dates back to colonial times and certainly was not limited to the South. Further, 'Southern Harmony' appears to be the title of a songbook and not the musical style. Even in the South, the style of music is more often called Old Folks Singing or shaped-note music. (Being an amateur on Wikepedia, I didn't want to change the title on my own.) --UnicornTapestry 18:08, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
- Hi UnicornTapestry. Thanks for calling attention to these Old Folks Singings. Concerning this article and Shaped-Note Singing: This article is intended to be about the book Southern Harmony and its place within the genre of shaped-note singing. There is another more general article about shape note singing. For this reason I have removed the information on the Canton, NC and Morristown, IN singings. I researched these and found that the Canton singing is a Christian Harmony singing. So that information might be more properly added to that page. The Morristown singing (no longer in instance according to Shelby Co., IN genealogists on rootsweb) is a descendant of the Missouri Harmony song book and could be placed there (although there is apparently not a page for it yet). - Rlvaughn (talk) 18:06, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Removal of material
I have removed the following. For an explanation see above my reply to UnicornTapestry.
Canton, North Carolina
More generally called 'shaped-note singing', this music survives in a festival called Old Folks Day in Canton, North Carolina, celebrated in September at the Morning Star United Methodist Church.
Morristown, Indiana
These festivals survive in the north as well, where again, the music is called '4-note diapason' or shaped-note singing, and most often is religious or at least inspirational, and sung in four part harmony. Each summer, Old Folks Singing is celebrated in the Christian Church in Morristown, Indiana. The notes in the songbooks vary slightly from those described above, appearing as ellipses, squares, upright triangles, and a slash, with stems attached as normal. One of the most popular songs is Make Your Mark.
