h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Earlier in my life, people asked me if I was familiar with the songs in "The singing harp." I wasn't but, your stories are giving me a chance to experience some of them, Dmitri.

Oh, good. I like Sacred Harp singing, myself. Some good songs there.

I have no idea about sacred harps, but love the image of one young carpenter knowing how hard things were as an apprentice, even if your dad's God!

I'm hanging doors today, so put a word in for me?

Oh, I admire people who can do things like hanging doors!

There's some Sacred Harp (it was an old hymnbook) singing in the movie 'Cold Mountain' - that's the movie based on North Carolinian Charles Frazier's novel about the Civil War. You know, the one that starred Margot Kidder and Rene Zellweger and a bunch of Brits, and was filmed in Transylvania?

Here's an example of the pure thing from some contemporary Sacred Harp singers in at a Primitive Baptist church. Now you see why those Carpenter Gothic buildings are so important: the whole building is the instrument for this kind of singing. It's an organ!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STtz7ZhEC6U

This style was popular in the Appalachians, and is still practised. There are organisations for it.

Then, of course, there was William Billings. A87746340 (Dang! That one has no illustration. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EswjzBRm1IM

"When Jesus wept" by Billings was a favorite of mine way back when. I've heard lots of Billings.

"I'm going home" I've done too, if it's the same as the Dvorak version.
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Or "Simple gifts"?

here'so ne of my favorite CD's:
http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Liberty-Music-American-Revolution/dp/B0000030FQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=birth+of+liberty+cd&qid=1604770974&sr=8-1

Not a lot of sacred music there, but some.

How about "Shal; we gather by the river"?

there's probably more that I've heard, but I look forward to more of your selections,. Dmitri.

No, that's nothing to do with Dvorak. 'Simple Gifts' is a Shaker hymn. The same tune is used for 'Lord of the Dance', which is a modern folk song written by the immortal Sydney Carter.

'Shall We Gather at the River?' is later than Sacred Harp - it's from 1864, by Robert Lowry, a Baptist pastor from Philadelphia.

These things come in waves. There was the versified-psalm singing of the 17th century, then the Isaac Watts/Charles Wesley musical revolution, where they sang hymns to old (but good!) pop tunes. A lot of that ended up in the Sacred Harp collections. Think 'Poor Wayfaring Stranger' and 'Wondrous Love'.

People made up similar tunes for camp meetings in the early republic - such as 'Say, Brothers, Will You Meet Us?' which became 'John Brown's Body'.

Around the 1860s, the age of respectability began. You get these staid songs like 'Shall We Gather?' Not too peppy. And temperance hymns like 'Dare to Be a Daniel', which made us laugh as kids. There was a huge outbreak of them in the 1870s-1890s, often very preachy and emotionally manipulative, just like the pop music of the time. Think 'Yield Not to Temptation' and other didactic miracles.

Fanny Crosby was the best of the lyricists from that period. She penned THOUSANDS of lyrics, amazing woman. I wrote about her at A87874564

Things slowed down in the 20th century. We got some pop stuff, mostly unedifying, then the 60s happened. The best religious song to come out of the attempt of church people to sing like flower children was 'Love Is Surrender'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6UtbsqhrV0

That Carpenters hit was actually part of a folk-rock musical called 'Tell It Like It Is'. It's as awful as you think it is.

http://lloydsofrochester.wordpress.com/2017/08/30/tell-it-like-it-is-by-ralph-carmichael-complete-lyrics/

Now, of course, they have the 'Dove Awards', and all H[eaven??] has broken loose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpTIGfYPBp0

I sometimes try to imagine what Charles Wesley would have said to 'Heavenly Father, I appreciate you.' Srsly.

I've sung "Wondrous love" and "shall we gather."

There may be others that I can't remember the names of, that were in it.

Good stuff for reading on Sunday morning.

Job well done. (pun intended)

Thanks, Caiman!

Okay, I've sung "Balm in Gilead."

I'm also familiar with "Come thou fount of every blessing"

I like "In the sweet bye and bye."
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=%22sacred+harp%22+sweet+bye+and+bye&id=5833F32EE9334026D70AD0DE5A810B8C72AD40E1&form=IQFRBA&first=1&scenario=ImageHoverTitle

Here's a list of hymns that are more familiar to me:
http://www.christianbook.com/selah/greatest-hymns/pd/CD9026?en=bing-pla&event=SHOP&kw=music-0-20%7CCD9026&p=1179517&dv=c&msclkid=c4810b004d37141b460f54a8e027f8d8&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Shopping%20Main&utm_term=4580702881405459&utm_content=s-all%20products

I really do love this music, whether mainstream hymns or spirituals, or Sacred Harp selections, or classical pieces. The emotional content comforts and soothes me sometimes.

My choral group sang the folk hymns "We'll shout and give him glory" and "Saints bound for heaven" in a 2004 tour of Prague, Vienna and Budapest (The Goulash Archipelago).