Before the beginning

Bay Psalm Book title pageHere are beautiful images of the Bay Psalm Book, in a Boston edition of 1742. The link is to a page from the collection of tunes bound in at the end. Here you can see Old Hundred (Sacred Harp page 49), arranged in three parts, Cantus (melody), Medius, and Bassus.

 

There are no shape-notes, but above each part the syllable fa, so, la, or mi is indicated by its first letter. The Medius and Bassus are closely related to the Sacred Harp's treble and bass parts respectively.

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