The week before September 11, 2001, the father of a close friend (and fellow Sacred Harp singer) died suddenly while bicycling. While shopping for a sympathy card, I was put off by the impersonal, treacly sentiments expressed inside most of the cards at the store and bought the simplest card I could find, vowing to write my own personalized message in place of the standard Supermarket Schmaltz. As I discovered to my dismay later on, this was much easier said than done, and I suddenly understood the purpose served by the cards I so casually dismissed earlier: It was impossible to come up with the right words to express the sorrow I was feeling for my friend's loss, and the comfort I somehow wished to convey. So I turned to music. This friend had discovered the joys of Sacred Harp singing at the same time as my wife and I, and I realized that I might have better luck expressing through song what I couldn't express through words. A tune and text came to me almost immediately, and within a few hours I had the tune harmonized and fully typeset ("Ray Raymond," page 34, named for a family nickname for her father). I tucked it inside the card and mailed it to my very surprised friend.
A few days later, on a gorgeous September morning, the world I had inhabited for nearly 40 years changed forever. After a few days glued to the nonstop parade of horrors on CNN, I realized that I might be able to express my feelings of anger, shock and grief through composition, since I was once again unable to articulate these feelings through words (or at least in complete sentences). I wondered if there were other singers out there of a compositional bent who might be similarly inspired, so I sent out exploratory e-mails and was most gratified to discover interest in this project from both Sacred Harp singers and the larger hymn-writing community. Tunes began rolling in almost immediately, and as the anthrax scare and the ongoing "War on Terror" created a whole new set of nightmares in the ensuing months, the tunes kept on coming.
Throughout all of this, the Sacred Harp community, as always, found strength by coming together and singing. The monthly Manhattan singing went on as scheduled less than a week after September 11. By month's end hundreds of singers had turned out for singing conventions in Illinois, Minnesota, New England, and across the South not only to remember the victims, but also to take spiritual comfort in the presence of our fellow singers. I'm sure all of the living composers represented in this collection share my hope that our work will contribute, in some small way, to this continuing healing process.
September Psalms contains twenty-six original tunes by living composers in a variety of styles, including a Stamps-Baxter-influenced tune, "For Such a Time As This," and a pair of English West Gallery tunes, "Vindomora" and "Cronniwell Tune." There are three settings of new poetry: "Counterattack," "For Our Nation" and "When Sudden Terror Tears Apart." The tunes include contributions (including three anthems) from noted composers Dan Brittain, Neely Bruce, Ted Johnson and Bruce Randall, whose work is represented in the 1991 revision of The Sacred Harp. Most of these tunes were written after September 11, but a few ("Jerilyn" and "Ray Raymond," for example) were inspired by earlier losses, but which nonetheless seem perfectly suited to this collection. The book also includes new harmonizations of patriotic songs, as well as Samuel A. Ward's original harmonization of "America, the Beautiful" (presented, as is customary in The Sacred Harp, under its tune name, "Materna"). Finally, I have included a pair of tunes from Joseph Hillman's The Revivalist, an extraordinary collection of early American hymn tunes and 19th century revival songs published in Troy, New York in 1869. "Autumn" (p. 35) is a classic old hymn tune, wedded to Hastings's plea to the Almighty for guidance and comfort during the most difficult of times, while "Christian Race" (p. 65), in a remarkable 2-part harmonization, provides a fitting close to the collection as it addresses the question as to which direction we should take as we race towards "a heavenly crown."
In addition to a superb slate of composers and poets who selflessly contributed their time and talents to this project, I would like to thank the following people:
May you all derive as much Peace and Joy from singing these tunes as I have in compiling them.
Christopher Noren
February, 2002
Back to the September Psalms page.