Digital Commons Network^™

Holy Manna: How Old Harp Singing In East Tennessee Is Surviving In A New Wilderness, Amanda Leigh Rogers

Masters Theses

This project explores the identity and sustainability of the shaped note singing tradition among the community of the Friends of the New Harp of Columbia. A pattern emerged in fieldwork of song ownership, songs that each member considered to be “theirs.” Songs of ownership intertwine with education, preservation, and mediation of multiple realities to provide a link between identity and preservation and between the past, present, and future. The community actively preserves their musical tradition through song ownership. The sustainability and survival of songs of ownership is emphasized in two ways: an emphasis on participation, not performance, and an emphasis …