The sound of the dove : singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist churches / Beverly Bush Patterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patterson, Beverly Bush, 1939-

Series:

Music in American life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church music--Primitive Baptists.

Church music.

Church music--Appalachian Region.

Choral singing.

Music--Social aspects.

Music.

Appalachian Region.

Physical Description:

x, 238 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm + 1 audiocassette (analog).

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [1995]

Summary:

In The Sound of the Dove, Beverly Bush Patterson explores one of the oldest traditions of American religious folksong, a national heritage of great beauty and dignity that remains vital in the lives and worship of predestinarian Primitive Baptists in the southern mountains. This unaccompanied and frequently unharmonized congregational singing challenges our assumptions about creativity, aesthetics, meaning, and identity.

Patterson's revealing study incorporates interviews, field observations, historical research, song transcriptions, and musical analysis. She uses seventeenth-century English documents to trace historical antecedents of Primitive Baptist singing and to frame her discussion of religious belief and gender roles as they intersect with singing. One chapter is devoted to the role of women in this church.

Contents:

1 Singing in Primitive Baptist Worship 1

2 Roots of Old Baptist Song Practices 11

3 Religious Identity and the Sound of Singing 31

4 Woman as Singer and Symbol 61

5 Creativity in the Old Way of Singing 85

6 The Influence of Notation and Gospel Songs 168

7 The Sound of the Dove 188.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [217]-222) and index.

"Selected field recordings": pages [209]-211.

ISBN:

0252021231

0252021738

OCLC:

29877252