Dayton Sacred Harpers

The Sacred Harp is an eclectic tune book, containing examples of some different forms, genres, and styles, and is written in four part Shape-Notes. Some of the tunes in The Sacred Harp were composed in England during the period 1690-1810, not for cathedrals or royal chapels, but for churches and chapels in towns and countryside, and for urban charity hospitals. Many tunes were written by New Englanders between 1770 and 1810. Among them were Boston tanner William Billings, New Haven merchant Daniel Read, and Vermont schoolmaster and innkeeper Justin Morgan.