List of shape-note tunebooks

Shape notes are a system of music notation designed to facilitate choral singing. Shape notes of various kinds have been used for over two centuries in a variety of sacred choral music traditions practiced primarily in the Southern region of the United States.

The following is a partial list of the shape note tunebooks published over the last two centuries. The list is divided according the two main systems of shape notes--four-shape vs. seven-shape--and within these two categories is sorted chronologically.

For full information on shape-note tunebooks, see Shape note.

Four-shape shape-note tunebooks

• The Easy Instructor, William Little & William Smith (1801)
• Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, John Wyeth (1810)
• Kentucky Harmony, Ananias Davisson (1816)
• Tennessee Harmony, Alexander Johnson (1818)
• The Missouri Harmony, Allen D. Carden (1820) (reprinted 2005)
• Columbian Harmony, William Moore (1825)
• The Virginia Harmony, James P. Carrell and David L. Clayton (1831)
• Genuine Church Music, Joseph Funk (1832)
• The Southern Harmony, William Walker (1835)
• Union Harmony, William Caldwell (1837)
• The Sacred Harp, B. F. White & Elisha J. King (1844)
• Hesperian Harp, Dr. William Hauser (1848)
• The Social Harp, John Gordon McCurry (1855)
• The Colored Sacred Harp, Judge Jackson (1934)
• Northern Harmony, Larry Gordon (1979; 4th edition 1998)
• An Eclectic Harmony, Eclectic Harmony Music Committee, Liz Bryant, Chair. Atlanta, (1999)
• An American Christmas Harp, Karen E. Willard. Puyallup, Washington, (2000)
• Oberlin Harmony, Chloe Maher and Charles Wells (2002)
• High Desert Harmony, Daniel Davis. Albuquerque, (2004)
• Norumbega Harmony, Stephen A. Marini, Boston, Massachusetts, (2004)

Seven-shape shape-note tunebooks (partial)

• The Christian Minstrel, Jesse B. Aiken (1846)
• Harmonia Sacra, Joseph Funk (1851)
• Warren's Minstrel, J. S. Warren (1857)
• Christian Harmony, William Walker (1866)
• The New Harp of Columbia, Marcus Lafayette Swan (1867)
• The Temple Star, Aldine Silliman Kieffer (1877)
• Olive Leaf, Dr. William Hauser (1878)
• The Good Old Songs, Elder C. H. Cayce (1913)
• Harp of Ages, Archibald Newton Whitten (1925)
• Favorite Songs and Hymns, Morris, Stamps, Baxter, Combs (1939)
• Heavenly Highway Hymns, Stamps-Baxter (1948/1976)
• An Eclectic Harmony II, Eclectic Harmony II Music Committee, Sharon Kellam and Berkley Moore, Co-Chairs. Boone, North Carolina, (2001)