Fall 2010 - University of Illinois Press

Music / Southern History
Religion / Dance
The Makers of the
Sacred Harp
David Warren Steel with
Richard H. Hulan
A comprehensive guide to the texts and tunes
of an American musical tradition
“The Makers of the Sacred
Harp fills a significant gap
in the American music history
literature by investigating
two centuries of American
composers and poets who have
contributed to the shape-note
hymnody repertoire. It will be
invaluable to American hymnologists
and contemporary
Sacred Harp singers.”
—Kiri Miller, author of Traveling
Home: Sacred Harp Singing
and American Pluralism
This authoritative reference work investigates the roots
of the Sacred Harp, the central collection of the deeply
influential and long-lived southern tradition of shape-note
singing. David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan concentrate
on the regional culture that produced the Sacred Harp
in the nineteenth century and delve deeply into history of
its authors and composers. They trace the sources of every
tune and text in the Sacred Harp, from the work of B. F.
White, E. J. King, and their west Georgia contemporaries
who helped compile the original collection in 1844 to the
contributions by various composers to the 1936 to 1991
editions. Drawing on census reports, local histories, family
Bibles and other records, rich oral interviews with descendants,
and Sacred Harp Publishing Company records, this
volume reveals new details and insights about the history of
this enduring American musical tradition.
David Warren Steel is an associate professor of music
and southern culture at the University of Mississippi.
Richard H. Hulan is an independent scholar of American
folk hymnody.
The Miriam Tradition
Teaching Embodied Torah
Cia Sautter
Highlighting the importance of song and dance
rituals to Sephardic Jewish religious practices
“Taking the study of embodied Torah in women’s
movement and dance in an exciting new direction, this
compelling and sophisticated book is of special interest to
students and scholars of Judaism, ritual studies, women’s
studies, and dance.”
—Barbara A. McGraw, coauthor of Many Peoples, Many
Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions
The Miriam Tradition works from the premise that religious
values form in and through movement, with ritual
and dance developing patterns for enacting those values.
Cia Sautter considers the case of Sephardic Jewish women
who, following in the tradition of Miriam the prophet,
performed dance and music for Jewish celebrations and
special occasions. She uses rabbinic and feminist understandings
of the Torah to argue that these women, called
tanyaderas, “taught” Jewish values by leading appropriate
behavior for major life events.
Sautter considers the religious values that are in music
and dance performed by tanyaderas and examines them in
conjunction with written and visual records and evidence
from dance and music traditions. Explaining the symbolic
gestures and motions encoded in dances, Sautter
shows how rituals display deeply held values that are
best expressed through the body. The book argues that
the activities of women in other religions might also be
examined for their embodiment and display of important
values, bringing forgotten groups of women back into the
historical record as important community leaders.
Cia Sautter teaches religious studies, dance, and yoga.
She currently lives in Minnesota.
NOVEMBER
208 PAGES. 6 x 9 INCHES
CLOTH (UNJACKETED), 978-0-252-03577-7. $65.00x £45.00
PAPER, 978-0-252-07762-3. $20.00s £14.99
A volume in the series Music in American Life
NOVEMBER
240 PAGES. 6 x 9 INCHES
32 BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS, 1 MUSICAL EXAMPLE,
2 TABLES
CLOTH, 978-0-252-03567-8. $70.00x £49.00
PAPER, 978-0-252-07760-9. $25.00s £16.99
Supported by the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund
(800) 621-2736 • www.press.uillinois.edu • University of Illinois Press 33