The Hesperian Harp

The Hesperian Harp is a shape note tunebook published in 1848 by Dr William Hauser, with reprintings issued in 1852, 1853, and 1874.[1] Subtitled A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Odes and Anthems, it is named after Hauser's plantation, Hesperia, in Jefferson County, Georgia. The word "harp" is often found in the titles of such tunebooks, most famously The Sacred Harp (although "Harmony" is also common, to emphasize the then-new concept of 4-part harmony, unlike the earlier method of lined-out hymnody that was being supplanted). The Hesperian Harp was probably the largest shape note tune book of its day, containing 552 pages of music, including 36 songs composed by Hauser. It uses the four-note system of notation pioneered by William Little and William Smith.

Title page of The Hesperian Harp (1874 edition)

Notes
  1. Patterson 1988, p. 34 n. 1
gollark: Which means accurately made lenses and stuff too, I guess?
gollark: I also had the idea of Discworld-style semaphore-tower networks driven by magical systems instead of human operators, but that would probably also be too complex to implement.
gollark: I see. It's kind of hard trying to figure out what sort of modern stuff would work in a world where most of the stuff we kind of assume exists doesn't.
gollark: I was reading the telegraph thing, and wondering if they could practically do radio, or if that would need too much power or electronics knowledge/capability.
gollark: Maybe they need Morey *and* Cato?

References

Further reading
  • Joseph Dennie Scott, The Tunebooks of William Hauser, D.M.A. Thesis, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1987
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