Sacred Harp

I have given four talks on shape-note music:

• South Carolina’s Lost Art: Shape-Note Singing.
  • Presents background information on the American singing-school and shape-note singing tradition.
  • Given April 2008 as part of the Lander University Distinguished Speaker Series

• Sacred Harp Harmony: A Part-Writing Primer for Shape-Note Hymnody.
  • Discusses the compositional style of shape-note hymnody.
  • Given October 2009 at the Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting in Montréal, Québec.

• Harmonious Union: How Sacred Harp Brings People Together.
  • Explores community and the fostering of values in the shape-note singing tradition.
  • Given June – August 2012 at Camp Fasola and Camp DoReMi, and published in Vol. 2, No. 1 of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company Newsletter, March 2013.

• A Corpus Study of Harmonic Syntax in The Sacred Harp.
  • Further explores compositional style and introduces an analysis system for shape-note hymnody.
  • Given March 2016 at the Joint Meeting of Music Theory Southeast and South Central Society for Music Theory.