Chattahoochee Musical Convention

Last updated

The Chattahoochee Musical Convention is a Sacred Harp singing convention. It is an annual gathering whose purposes are worship, through the singing of Sacred Harp music, and fostering of bonds of fellowship among singers. [1] It bears the distinction of being the oldest surviving Sacred Harp musical convention, having been founded in 1852.

Contents

History

Plans were laid for the convention in the fall of 1851 at the home of composer Oliver Bradfield, north of Newnan, Georgia. It was organized in 1852 in western Georgia at Macedonia Baptist Church in Coweta County. The impetus for the Chattahoochee Musical Convention was the success of the original Sacred Harp hymnbook and the Southern Musical Convention that was then affiliated with it. With the northward geographic spread of Sacred Harp singing into the Coweta County region, it was felt that the time had come for the residents of this area to have their own convention. [2] The early sessions were attended by Sacred Harp founder B. F. White and other leading Sacred Harp figures of the day. [3]

In its early period the convention was four days long, ending on the first Sunday in August and beginning the preceding Thursday. [3] Currently it is a two-day convention, ending on the same day. [4]

The convention missed a few sessions during the American Civil War. As Thurman (1952/2002, 34) states, "the progress of the Convention was greatly disrupted by the war. Many of the leading singers were called to arms and it was a serious blow to the body." At the end of the war in 1865 the Convention met again at Mount Zion in Carroll County, Georgia to begin anew; B. F. White and other Sacred Harp luminaries were in attendance. [5] That year, the Chattahoochee Convention began keeping written records of its proceedings, records which have survived to the present time and serve as a historical resource for Sacred Harp scholarship. In 1866, the Convention adopted a written constitution. [6]

The members of the Convention have included some of the creators of the modern editions of The Sacred Harp. According to Thurman, Joseph Stephen James, who headed the committee that created the 1911 edition from which the modern "Denson" edition descends, "had been a member of the Chattahoochee forty-four years when his revised edition was given to the public." [7] The primary creators of the Denson edition (1936), Thomas Denson and Seaborn Denson, also attended the Convention on a number of occasions starting in 1878; and Thomas's son Paine Denson, who completed the work of the 1936 edition, was a member. [8]

The Convention has met every year since resuming after the Civil War, with the sole exception of 1881.[ citation needed ]

Venue

In the 1930s, Matthew H. & Ada Ward Wilson built a structure near Carrollton, Georgia, called Wilson Chapel, for the express purpose of housing the Chattahoochee Musical Convention. [9] The Convention has met here for most of the years since 1938, [9] and exclusively since 1989. The building continues to be maintained by the Wilson family. [10]

Etymology

"Chattahoochee" is a local place name, notably of the Chattahoochee River, one of the principal streams of Georgia that flows through the region of the convention. It is said [11] to come from an expression in Creek meaning "painted rock."

Notes

  1. For commentary by Convention participants on the meaning and purpose of their gathering, see the work of the Resolutions Committee at the sesquicentennial convention of 2002, posted on line at .
  2. Source: the manuscript centennial history document written by Earl Thurman (1952, now published in Miller 2002, p. 31)
  3. 1 2 Thurman/Miller 1952/2002, p. 32
  4. The current scheduling of the Convention is posted on the widely used fasola.org web site, at Archived 2015-01-21 at the Wayback Machine .
  5. Thurman/Miller 1952/2002, 34
  6. Thurman/Miller 1952/2002, 36
  7. Thurman/Miller, (1951/2002), 87
  8. Thurman/Miller, (1951/2002), 92-93, 103-104
  9. 1 2 Cobb, p. 153
  10. See the Minutes of the Convention for 2002 and subsequent years, posted on line at .
  11. Wikipedia, "Chattahoochee River"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shape note</span> Musical notation for group singing

Shape notes are a musical notation designed to facilitate congregational and social singing. The notation, introduced in late 18th century England, became a popular teaching device in American singing schools. Shapes were added to the noteheads in written music to help singers find pitches within major and minor scales without the use of more complex information found in key signatures on the staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Harp</span> Tradition of sacred choral music

Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The name is derived from The Sacred Harp, a ubiquitous and historically important tunebook printed in shape notes. The work was first published in 1844 and has reappeared in multiple editions ever since. Sacred Harp music represents one branch of an older tradition of American music that developed over the period 1770 to 1820 from roots in New England, with a significant, related development under the influence of "revival" services around the 1840s. This music was included in, and became profoundly associated with, books using the shape note style of notation popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

A singing school is a school in which students are taught to sightread vocal music. Singing schools are a long-standing cultural institution in the Southern United States. While some singing schools are offered for credit, most are informal programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Walker (composer)</span> American songwriter

William Walker was an American Baptist song leader, shape note "singing master", and compiler of four shape note tunebooks, most notable of which are the influential The Southern Harmony and The Christian Harmony, which has been in continuous use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Franklin White</span> American hymn writer

Benjamin Franklin White was a shape note "singing master", and compiler of the shape note tunebook known as The Sacred Harp. He was born near Cross Keys in Union County, South Carolina, the twelfth child of Robert and Mildred White.

The East Texas Musical Convention, now usually called the East Texas Sacred Harp Convention, is an annual gathering of shape note singers. Songs are sung a cappella from the Sacred Harp tunebook. The Convention was organized in 1855, and is the oldest Sacred Harp convention in Texas, and the second oldest in the United States. The East Texas Convention was modeled after the older Southern Musical Convention established in 1845 by Benjamin Franklin White, the compiler of The Sacred Harp.

James Landrum White was a shape note singing teacher, composer, and a reviser of his father's shape note tunebook known as The Sacred Harp.

Joseph Stephen James, of Douglasville, Georgia, was a lawyer, community leader, shape note singer, composer, and a reviser of the tunebook known as The Sacred Harp.

The New Sacred Harp was a seven-shape note tune book released in 1884 through S.P. Richard & Son of Atlanta, Georgia.

David Patillo White (1828–1903) was a shape note singing teacher, composer, and a co-issuer, with his father, of the 1870 Sacred Harp. He was the second child of Benjamin Franklin White and Thurza Melvina Golightly, whose other children were William Decatur, Robert H., Mary Caroline, Nancy Ogburn, Thurza Melvina, Benjamin Franklin, Jr., James Landrum, and Martha America.

The Southern Musical Convention was the first Sacred Harp musical convention, organized by B. F. White and others in 1845. It was formed at Huntersville in Upson County, Georgia.

George Pullen Jackson (1874–1953) was an American educator and musicologist. He was a pioneer in the field of Southern (U.S.) hymnody. He was responsible for popularizing the term "white spirituals" to describe the "fasola" singing.

The Southwest Texas Sacred Harp Singing Convention is an annual gathering of shape note singers. Songs are sung a cappella from the Sacred Harp tune book. The convention was organized on April 28, 1900, at the Round Top School House, in Caldwell County, Texas, as the South Union Singing Convention. It is the second oldest continuous Sacred Harp convention in Texas. Several older conventions are no longer extant.

The Sacred Harp is a shape note tunebook, originally compiled in 1844 by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King in Georgia and used to this day in revised form by Sacred Harp singers throughout America and overseas. This article is a historical overview and listing of the composers and poets who wrote the songs and texts of The Sacred Harp.

The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers were any of the informal groups participating in four recorded Sacred Harp singing sessions in Alabama in the 20th century, who were thereafter credited by that name as artists or performers in the published versions of those recordings.

Richard Lee DeLong was a leading figure in contemporary Sacred Harp singing. He taught frequently in singing schools and served as the youngest member of the editorial board that created the 1991 Revision of The Sacred Harp, the most widely used book for Sacred Harp singing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh McGraw</span> American Sacred Harp singer (1931–2017)

Hugh McGraw was a leading figure in contemporary Sacred Harp singing. He was the General Chairman of the committee that created the 1991 Denson revision of The Sacred Harp and played an important role in promoting the spread of Sacred Harp singing. Sacred Harp scholar Buell Cobb has called him "perhaps the chief promoter and good will agent of Sacred Harp music".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. M. Cagle</span> Sacred Harp composer and singer

Alfred Marcus Cagle was an American hymnwriter known for his activities with the Sacred Harp movement.

Jarusha Henrietta Denson Edwards, better known as Ruth was a figure in the Sacred Harp movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenandoah Harmony</span>

The Shenandoah Harmony is a 2013 republication of the works of Ananias Davisson (1780–1857) and other composers of his era, in the format used by modern shape note singing groups. Although a number of new shape note tune books were compiled and published in the two decades leading up to the publication of the Shenandoah Harmony, this volume is notable as "the largest new four-shape tunebook published for more than 150 years." The book is named after Shenandoah Valley, whose importance in the emergence of a distinctive Southern shape-note singing tradition has been noted by many musicologists. Authentic South reporter Kelley Libby of WFAE, attending an all-day singing in Cross Keys, felt "transported to the Shenandoah Valley of the 1800s."

References