"THE CHRISTIAN HARMONY" (1805)
by Jeremiah Ingalls: selected tunes for study online
Hear and view selected pieces from this revolutionary tunebook. |
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| Lovely Vine |
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This tune opens Ingalls' 1805 offering, on poetic a theme that reccurs throughout his work, the divinity of God reflected in the natural world. |
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| Shouting Hymn |
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A folk-tune also used by Robert Burns in his Masonick Farewell of 1786. Notice how the word 'shout' appears in every verse. See also CLAMANDA on pg. 48 in The Sacred Harp, and SOCIAL BAND in Southern Harmony. |
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| Endless Day |
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Ingalls' musical setting of this text like many others, echoes the 18th Century Scotch song "Nae luck about the hoose." Compare with GOSPEL TRUMPET on pg. 99 of The Sacred Harp. |
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| Prince of Peace |
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A truly revolutionary harmonic progression, (vi, V/vi, I) underlies this hymn. Two consecutive major chords a major 3rd apart... in 1805? A royal fanfare with a twist! |
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| Love to Jesus |
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The syllabic setting of this text brings to mind JUBILEE and BOUND FOR CANAAN from the Sacred Harp. A very 'Southern' sounding tune for an 1805 New England book.
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| Sinful Youth |
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Ingalls plays the same harmonic twist on his listeners this time from the minor side, (i, V, III) causing the A beautiful and haunting folk-hymn from the Captain Kid family. |
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| Celestial Watering |
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One of Ingalls longest lived compostions, it went on in the campmeeting tradition with the text "Come ye sinners poor and needy," with that text it was called INVITATION. Fragments of the refrain can be heard in JUBILEE and MAN'S REDEMPTION in The Sacred Harp. |
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| Garden Hymn / Love Divine |
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Ingalls' rollicking jig-like setting, has cousins in The Sacred Harp including NASHVILLE and THE GARDEN HYMN. See also SPRINGHILL from Wyeth's Repository, part 2nd. |
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| Soldier of the Cross |
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With it's hymn-book verses and informal "Glory Hallelujah" Chorus, this setting is a genuine Camp-meeting spiritual. In pulse, phrasing, and structure it resembles SAINT'S DELIGHT on pg 144 of The Sacred Harp. |
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| Mourning Souls |
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Scottish syncopations abound in this setting. A close variant of CHURCH'S LAMENTATION on pg. 95 in Sacred Harp. The author of both poems is unknown. |
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| Golden Streets |
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A haunting campmeeting spiritual, seemingly based on the AYLESBURY psalm tune. An early appearance of the refrain "We are on our journey home." |
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| Song of Moses |
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A truly unique setting of a pentationic Irish-sounding air with a sweeping range. Ingalls had a son named Moses, could this poignant song be a tribute to him? |
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| Redemption Hymn |
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A homophonic 'frontier-version' of this tune appeared 15 years later in Carden's Missouri Harmony (1820), the tunebook that Abe Lincoln grew up singing with. |
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| Wisdom |
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Compare with 95b VERNON in The Sacred Harp. Another setting of 'The Parting Glass' air, but with a beautiful harmonic sublety of begining in G major and ending in E minor. |
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| Lynnfield |
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Ingalls engages in some 'music ficta' to create a chord that sounds 'so false and yet so fair.' Is the opening gesture a nod to Timothy Swan's RAINBOW? |
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| Jerusalem |
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One of his best remembered tunes. See pg. 299 in The Sacred Harp. His 1805 version contains some surprising sharps and a deceptive cadence to E, which may or may not be a typesetters error, but it sure sounds great! |
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| A Parting Blessing |
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A beautiful closing song, the air also occurs in Pilsbury's 1799 United States Harmony with the title KINGSTON. Ingalls uses that air with an additional high strain again in his tune MELODIOUS SONNET. See also MULLINS in The Sacred Harp. |
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