New England Singing-School Music
Norumbega Harmony, Stephen Marini, Singing Master
Sweet Seraphic Fire brings together two unique bodies of American sacred song: choral compositions from the New England singing-school tradition and the most popular Evangelical Protestant hymn texts in historic American use. In the late eighteenth century the New England singing-school movement produced America's first great sacred-music style, employing several genres of unaccompanied four-part choral compositions with the melody in the lead (tenor) part. The enormous popularity of singing-school music also promoted a canon of hymn texts shared across America's competing Evangelical Protestant denominations.
This recording contains neglected masterworks from the New England singing school that also helped to create the American hymn canon. Marking a more recent turn in this process, we have also included some new settings of traditional Evangelical lyrics written by leaders in the revival of singing-school music that has blossomed in the Northeast since 1976. Selection of pieces (35) for this recording was determined by correlating The Norumbega Harmony — our collection of one hundred six historic New England singing-school compositions and thirty contemporary works in traditional style —with a list of the three hundred most frequently printed hymn texts in America from 1737 to 1960. —Stephen Marini
Sweet Seraphic Fire
| MP3/320 | $9.99 | |
| WAV | $9.99 | |
| CD | $15.99 |
Track Listing
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New Canaan
Oliver Holden
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Maryland
William Billings
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Bethlehem
William Billings
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Lynn
Oliver Holden
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Funeral Hymn
Oliver Holden
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An Anthem For Easter
William Billings
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Walpole
Abraham Wood
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Beauty
Jacob French
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Happiness
Jacob French
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Woburn
Jacob Kimball
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Montague
Timothy Swan
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Newport
Daniel Read
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Hatfield
Thomas Baird
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Attention
Asahel Behnam
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Crucifixion
M. Kyes
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Mechias
James Lyon
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St. Paul's
Supply Belcher
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Transition
Supply Belcher
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Jubilant
Supply Belcher
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The Lilly
Supply Belcher
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Buckfield
Abraham Maxim
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Pennsylvania
Nehemiah Shumway
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Sounding Joy
J.P. Storm
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Redemption
Jeremiah Ingalls
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Consolation
Lucius Chapin
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Liberty-Hall
Lucius Chapin
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The Babe Of Bethlehem
Anonymous
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Convoy
M.L. Swan
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Hallelujah New
Roland Hutchinson
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Nativity
Bruce A. Randall
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Cortona
M.R. Truelsen
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Great Divide
Stephen Marini
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Arinello
Dennis O'Brien
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Ev'ry String Awake
Glen Wright
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Ten Thousand Charms
Hal Kunkel
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