Something for Reformation Day

I wish I could provide a more exciting update, but unfortunately I have not had a lot of time to devote to the compilation over the past few weeks, as the number of my professional demands has been exceptionally high. Furthermore, we’re holding steady at three tunes to go, as I’ve been mostly concentrating on boring things like indices, and so I don't have anything new and exciting to post.

As a result, I’ve instead decided to share a seasonally appropriate update from repertoire that I had previous typeset. While the vast majority of 19^th century shape note activity was English language based, there were a handful of four-shape tunebooks published with text entirely in German, or as bilingual German-English collections, including Choral-Harmonie (Gerhart & Eyer, 1818), Die Neue Choral Harmonie (Musselmann, 1844), and Die Pennsylvanishe Choral Harmonie, compiled by T.R. Weber, which ran for at least fifteen editions.

Below is a tune excerpted from one such collection, Die Union Choral Harmonie (Henry C. Eyer, printed by Francis Wyeth: Harrisburg, PA, 1836). In honor of Reformation Day, I hope you’ll enjoy Asylum, one of the entries for the 46^th Psalm – I suspect many of you will recognize the tune, even if Herr Eyer names it something unfamiliar. Give it a sing if you have an opportunity this weekend – or some other time – and if you’re feeling up to it, give the German a shot. Viel Spaß!