Critical Review #8: Campbell 1997

Campbell's essay discusses the period of fracture and change in shapenote singing around the turn of the 20th century. In the late 19th century, a number of innovative styles branched off from the original tradition, including new pedagogical systems using seven shapes instead of the older four and the new genre of gospel singing. While the original shapenote tradition had been born of innovation during the time of the Second Great Awakening at the beginning of the 19th century, many Southerners nearly a hundred years later began to view the tradition as immutable, representing their uniquely rural way of life and way of worshipping. This yearning for constancy in the tradition was especially relevant in light of socioeconomic changes in the "New South," including to the growth of urban areas, cultivation of cash crops, and industry. After a number of revisions to the Sacred Harp failed to integrate the new notational system and songs into the tradition, Joseph James's The Original Sacred Harp was published in 1911. James promised that his edition was not trying to be new, but rather upholding tradition and preserving the old style. Nevertheless, Campbell points out, James's various publications are really a milestone in the invention of tradition. In other anthologies, he included a number of new gospel songs in the original four-shape notation that was able to cater to more conservative singers. Perhaps more importantly, he mediated the invention of a shapenote singing tradition that valued preservation, history, and nostalgia.