A new shapenote tune! Finally!
I’ve been working on Catalina off and on for many months; the final breakthrough (though not actually the completion of the tune) happened down at All-Cal, where I generally had gorgeous views of Catalina Island from the hostel where I was staying.
We sang through the last draft at the last Swarthmore sing, and despite some serious typos in that draft, I was fairly happy with it. Can’t wait to sing it at the Western Mass. Composium in a few weeks. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what to say about the text: I took an Isaac Watts text (from 515 in the S.H.), but modified it heavily (most notably so that it went from being in Long Meter to being decidedly Particular – 8,8,8,8,8,8,8,6, to be exact).
I’m particularly proud of the engraving – thanks to the Fasolily list for advice and for getting together the new Sacred Harp font, which improves the look-and-feel considerably.
Hopefully soon I’ll have a new version of my Sacred Harp Lilypond template up.
UPDATE: This has been up less than a day, and I’ve already gotten good feedback and revised heavily. Changes include: A better alto line overall (with fewer fa-6s); a more reasonable treble line; a bit less dissonance in the tenor; some contrary motion added to the bass line. The link above, and also the link from the Music page, have both been changed (to version 0.9).