xt73ff3kx25d https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt73ff3kx25d/data/mets.xml Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Kentucky. Young Men's Progress Club, Benton, Ky. Southern harmony and musical companion Walker, William, 1809-1875 1939 A reproduction of the 1854 edition.  Original title: The southern harmony, and musical companion: containing a choice collection of tunes, hymns, psalms, odes, and anthems; selected from the most eminent authors in the United States ... also, an easy introduction to the grounds of music, the rudiments of music, and plain rules for beginners, by William Walker ... New ed., thoroughly rev. and much enl.  Philadelphia, E.W. Miller [1854] Music in four-shape notation. The introduction contains an account of the annual festival known as "Benton's big singing." books Hastings House This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Kentucky Works Progress Administration Publications Hymns, English Sight-singing Solmization Music--Kentucky--Benton The southern harmony songbook text The southern harmony songbook 1939 1939 2012 true xt73ff3kx25d section xt73ff3kx25d i (2};;:  
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AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
REPRODUCED, WITH AN INTRODYCTION BY
l THE FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT OF KENTUCKY, WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
I J s1>0Ns0RED BY
I THE YOUNG MEN’S PROGRESS CLUB
[ BENTON, KENTUCKY
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[ HASTINGS HOUSE, Pzzblislwrs NEW YORK, N. Y.
E 1939
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WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION   .
F. C. HARRINGTON, Administrator  
FLORENCE S. KERR, Assistant Administrator It
HENRY G. ALSBERG, Director of the Federal Writers' Project   »
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COPYRIGHT 1939- BY  
YOUNG MEN’S PROGRESS CLUB, BENTON, KENTUCKY {
I PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA l
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 l V .
;= PREFACE
ii-- The American wilderness has become a land of farms, towns, and cities. The oxcart has been
j< superseded by the railroad, the automobile, and the airplane. The packhorse messenger has been dis-
  carded for the telephone, telegraph, and radio. The log cabin has been replaced by frame house, brick
lf; ‘ mansion, and service apartment. The well and the old oaken bucket have given way to plumbing fed by
  ” tested water from a central tank or reservoir. These and other changes wrought by modern science have
'   come to Benton, Kentucky. But in this old western Kentucky town there lingers undisturbed a traditional
i ji. . festival known as the “Benton`s Big Singing." Only recently has its existence been threatened by the
  exhausting of the last edition of the Southern Harmony songbook, published in 1854. The few remain-
  ing copies, worn and brown with age, are guarded with care. Unless this old songbook could be repro-
1 duced, the probability was that the younger generation would lose interest in the festival that meant _‘
j much to their fathers and mothers, from whom they learned their traditional mode of community
j Slflglflg.
l While the Federal Writers` Project was gathering material for Kentucky, a Guide to the Bluegrass
[ State, its editors became interested in the Benton’s Big Singing as an unique custom that deserved pres-
§ ervation. To this end the Young Men”s Progress Club of Benton adopted as one of its major projects
l the reproduction of the old Southern Harmony songbook. Through the united efforts of this club and
the Federal Writers` Project, this reproduction of the Southern Harmony songbook, with an illustrated
story of the festival and its background, is made possible.
Special thanks are due to Dr. George Pullen jackson, of Vanderbilt University, for information on
j William Walker and the Southern Harmony songbook and for permission to publish the picture of
William Walker and his tuning fork. The sketch of  R. Lemon, founder of the festival, is by George
Joseph, of the art department of the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. The sketch
of the old courthouse, which burned in 1914, is by Orville A. Carroll, of the Federal Arts Project. We
are particularly grateful for the cooperation of official representatives of the co-sponsor, The Young
j Men`s Progress Club of Benton, Kentucky, without whose enthusiastic effort this work could not have °
[ been completed. U. R. BELL, State Director

 _ ]. R. LEMON ,
, `¥     ''``‘   Founder of Benton’s Big Singing
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 · ]AMES R. LEMON
The originator and founder of Benton`s Big Singing, ]ames R. Lemon, was born in Guilford
County, North Carolina, April 10, 1848. ln the summer of 1852 he came with his parents in a covered
wagon across the Appalachian Mountains to Marshall County, Kentucky. Tucked away in the wagon,
along with children and household goods, was a copy of Southern Harmony, the remarkable old song-
i book written and published in 1835 by “Singin’ Billy” VValker. The Lemons were a singing family and
the book was doubtless one of their highly-prized possessions. The elder Lemons settled on a farm in
Marshall County and sent their children to the rural school to be educated. James R., the oldest of the
1 six Lemon children, possessed an exceptionally fine tenor voice and early became a “singing master," or .
~ teacher of singing schools, popular throughout the rural regions of the South at that time. He used the i
Southern Harmony book both in the singing schools and in the ‘“literary" schools which he taught for
many years. ln 1874 he entered the drug business at Benton, later becoming a traveling salesman.
Lemon was married to Cora A. Wilson in 1873, and after her death, to Lucretia C. Thompson. He
Q was the father of six children, four sons and two daughters, all of them but one now living (1939). i
In 1890 he became the proprietor and editor of the Benton Tribune, and in 1892 served as postmaster
under President Cleveland. After selling the Tribune, he bought the Mayfield Daily Messenger, which
l he operated until his death in December, 1919.
A ]ames R. Lemon is said to have possessed a distinguished personality and an unusual gift for
i inspiring others to follow his leadership. This, and his fine voice were largely responsible for the success
y of the institution which he established.
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 .. ,.,. ..  ,_, ___   ,_     .__v,·_,   Regular attendants at every meeting
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ӣ;i>- =\ .    W, _ , right) Mrs. Cora Rudolph, Mrs. jane
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°{ *5% .=?—§ ·°?g#>$}&  · Galloway, Mrs. ]'. L. Bohannon, Mr.
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.V   _,,_J:,_     james T. Fields, George Bailey, Mrs.
    Ethel Fiser, Mrs. Laura Ferguson, Al·
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" V · V " .)'`   fred Copeland, George Walters, D. 2
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 ‘ BIG SINGING DAY AT BENTON
The movement for the revival of the old-fashioned mass harmony singing began in Benton in 1884
when ]ames R. Lemon, his brother George, and a few others, gathered at the Old Benton Seminary, ·
and sang songs from the Southern Harmony, “Singin’ Billy" VValker’s book. From this simple begin-
ning has developed the unique festival held regularly for fifty-four years in the courthouse in Benton,
V with many thousand attending from all over western Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois.
Before ten o`clock, on the fourth Sunday in May, the entire population of the surrounding
countryside arrives by train, in autos, buggies, and jolt wagons, and on foot, to swell the crowd
gathering in the courthouse and overflowing into the yard and square. The program is quite sim le,
, consisting of mass rendition of the old hymns and ballads without instrumental accompaniment. The _
singing is directed by a chosen leader and there is no prouder distinction. The singers are about forty -
old men and women who occupy the space behind the chancel rail, and as many others as can find space
in the courtroom. Promptly at ten o`clock the strains of “l·Ioly Manna" are heard from voices quaver-
ing with age but fervent with sentiment and a determination that the beloved old songs shall not die.
The leader, always an elderly man, holds the book in his left hand and beats time with the right; the
singers Hrst go through with the song, singing the notes, fa, sol, la, mi. If the leader is familiar with
g more stanzas than appear in the book, he lines them_out in the most approved manner. Some of the 8
favorite songs are “Lone Pilgrim,” “Bound for Canaan,” “How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours,`°
and “Green Fields.”
_ At twelve o’clock the throng leaves the courthouse and gathers in groups on the lawn under the
' trees for the basket picnic. After dinner the singers return to the courthouse and sing until 4 :00 P. NI.
Only a few of those present at the first “Singing Day" held in May, 1884, are living today, and
each year their ranks grow thinner. But the children and grandchildren have learned to sing the old
songs and to love them, and upon them will rest the responsibility of keeping alive this ancient
musical tradition.
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 ; WILLIAM WALKER AND SOUTHERN HARMONY
On May 6, 1809, on the Tyger River near the village of Cross Keys, William Walker, author of
Southern Harmony, was born. He was of Welsh descent, his father having emigrated from Wales in
the eighteenth century. When William was eighteen, the family moved to a place near Spartanburg. He
is said to have made good use of his educational advantages, which, however, were of an elementary
, , kind. Though it is uncertain when he first earned his sobriquet, "Singin` Billy" Walker, it must have
been when he was quite young, as he early became affiliated with the Welsh-Baptist Church of his
ancestors. Continuously, thereafter, he was exposed to the tradition of religious folk songs with which
that church endowed early America——songs that became the chief glory of Southern Harmony.
l Through his youthful piety and fervor, he was imbued with the ambition to perfect the vocal Q
methods of praise which he deemed an essential part of religious worship. To this purpose he devoted
his entire life gathering and arranging into meter and melody songs which his biographer, Landrum,
says were created out of the “deep minstrels of his own bosom." As a result of his labors he published,
in 1835, a musical work entitled the Southern Harmony, which soon became a household word in every
hamlet in the Southeast. _
Congregational singing in the church and singing schools, without instrumental accompaniment,
constituted the musical life of those times in the inland and upland Southeast—in fact, in rural America
as a whole. William Walker soon became an important leader in this rich group life. As singing master
* he taught hundreds of singing schools all over the states of North and South Carolina, and Georgia and
the eastern part of Tennessee. Later in life he taught teachers of singing in what were called "normal"
singing schools.
When he was twenty-four years old Walker married Amy Golightly and ten children, five boys and
five girls, were born of the union. Walker is described as a corpulent man of line physique and tremen-

 dous energy and a buoyant, happy disposition. He always signed his name, “William Walker, A.S.H." _
(author of Southern Harmony), and he was said to have told his friends, “I would rather have A.S.H. `
after my name than P—r-e-s in front of it.”
Illness and age finally put an end to the musical career of the venerable master of song. His grave-
stone in the Magnolia Cemetery of Spartanburg reads:
_ “ln memory of William Walker, A.S.H. Died Sept. 24, 1875, in the 67th year of his age. He was
g a devoted Husband and kind Father. A consistent Baptist 47 yrs. Taught music 45 yrs. The Author of . {
4 Books of sacred music. He rests from his labors. He died in the triumphs of faith. Sing praises unto
the Lord.”
The Southern Harmony was written by Walker primarily to provide his singing schools with a
book of his own composition. Despite the practical reasons for its production, in its incorporation of L
racial and traditional melodies and the complete absence of all the banalities of individual tune tinker-
ing, Southern Harmony was an outstanding achievement, whose author was little short of a genius. In
buying 600,000 copies over a period of 25 years southern rural Folk seem to have agreed with this c
appreciation of its value. Prior to the War between the States, it was so popular that it had to be kept
in stock in the general stores along with groceries and tobacco. g
The "Gamut or Rudiments of Music" with which the book opens is found in slightly varying forms
in songbooks of this sort from Shakespeare’s time until now. It was an important part of the book, as it
was the only printed instruction used in the singing schools. The "Introductory Remarks" on page 29 I
were borrowed, Walker states, from Columbian Harmony, a similar book compiled in 1825 by William
Moore of Wilson County, Tennessee.
The peculiar solmization system shown on page 4 reaches back to the seventeenth century in the
j British Isles. The major diatonic scale was sung as fa sol la fa sol Za mi fa. The series with which we

 L are more or less familiar today, as do re mi fa sol la ti do, had been imported into Colonial America by
foreign musicians; but it had not supplanted the old English system in the rural regions of the Southeast
in William Walker's day. Today this solmization system, long since forgotten in Old England, is fol-
lowed in the one Southern Harmony singing still surviving; for these folk prefer to remain true to their
own musical tradition.
Another feature of Walker’s musical system is the shape-notes, the purpose of which is to make
e note-reading easier. This system was introduced in 1800 by two singing masters, William Little and
William Smith of Albany, New York. The idea was to associate each of the four notes with a shape:
fa was a triangular note-head; sol was round, Za was square, and mi had a diamond shape. Within a
few decades the “patent notes” had been adopted by all songbook makers, save those who sold to the
A people of the coastal cities and New England. The use of this notational system is now confined to rural - 4
regions of the South.
The list of contents on the title page is the same as that found on many book covers of that day.
It does not, however, lit the facts entirely. Among the 335 songs in the book, there are practically no
“psalms" and only a few “odes and anthems," selected from popular eighteenth-century American _
¥ composers. The type of song having by far the largest representation is the folk hymn of the Welsh-
Baptist stock songs found by Walker in such books as the Baptist Harmony and the Kentucky Harmony,
and in the oral traditional songs of different denominations. The tunes of the folk hymns were borrowed
_ from secular folk songs and ballads; “Captain Kidd," a folk hymn, even borrowed its title from that
source. The first Hfteen songs in the book are of this variety; others are scattered throughout the work.
By far the most popular type and the liveliest is the fuguing songs, such as “‘]erusalem," “VVhite-
town," "Evening Shade," and a score of others. The revival songs, not listed on the title page, may be
recognized by the repetition of lines and the copious use of refrain and chorus. These traits developed

 in the camp meetings of the south and were afterward borrowed wholesale by the Negroes. Of this
class "Come and Taste With Me," "The Good Old Way,” and "Hebrew Children,” are typical.
William Walker`s name, appearing frequently on the song pages, does not mean that he was the
composer, but merely indicates that he harmonized the songs in question. His harmony is called bad by
musical purists, but unfettered musicians find in it a dehnite character, one which seems consistent with
the tune, the folk, and their religious concepts.
_ The first edition of the Southern Harmony appeared in 1835. Walker took his manuscript to New
Haven, Connecticut, where it was printed by Nathan Whiting, there being, evidently, no printing shop
in his section where such work could be done. During the following years, edition after edition appeared
on the market; the last one, that reproduced here, appeared in 1854.
The reason why this immensely popular book was not reprinted after 1854 is probably the War W
between the States and the disaster it brought to the South. Another and even more potent reason is
that Walker deserted the four-shape notation with which Southern Harmony had become synonymous,
and went over to the seven-shape note party. When he published his Christian Harmony in that form,
after the War between the States, he probably believed his clientele would shift their loyalty with him.
But his hopes were in vain——they clung to their old four-shape, 1854 copies. Walker’s failure to provide _
them with further editions of the Southern Harmony sealed the fate of that book, as it seemed, forever. ’
While the Southern Harmony itself was not printed after 1854, a large part of its song treasure
found a place in the Sacred Harp, a book compiled in 1844 by Walker’s brother-in-law, B. F. White,
still available and widely used in the deep South. Other songs preserved in Walker”s pages have gone
over into the songhooks of the Primitive Baptists.
ln the southeastern scene of Walker`s life work, his book is now merely a treasured relic on the
shelves of the aged. Hence it is all the more surprising that it is still in active use by a singing group in
a region which was, when the book was born, almost on the western frontier.

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GATHERING FOR THE BIG SINGING · ` - ; ll M C  — will
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BOONE HILL W. W. NICHOLS I
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LEADS THE SINGING V. A. _ __'A.,_ .   { · ’   ·»»   .  ‘-—. _ _ I _
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 THE YOUNGER GENERATION LEARNS THE TUNE , ` _. I _   T-
]0hn VVilson and Frank Nichols sing with VVcsley G. ,_ V A `, _     A
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A FAMILY QUARTETTE ‘   g,   ‘¢;·? _     .»·  .2  
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mony leaders, T. H. Nichols, jr., Raymond L. Nichols, and _   ` `=` l·>L_` _.' ri ps,   “"',$.§.  
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