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Grant Brooks's avatar

Well said

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Bartholomew Reed's avatar

Good article Turnip. Studying the music of a people is a good way to study their culture, as music is something everyone can understand to some degree or another, but also something that every culture does slightly differently.

Are you familiar with Sacred Harp singing? It’s more of a New England/Old South thing than an Oklahoma thing, and something I associate less with Lutherans than with Appalachian congregations in the east, though it’s becoming more widespread across the country. It’s a singing tradition that goes back to the first half-century of American independence and uses shape note notation instead of the conventional key signatures. It’s very beautiful, very Protestant, and thoroughly American.

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