Editing Southern Harmony (section)

== History ==
''The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion'' was compiled by William "Singin' Billy" Walker and printed in 1835, with subsequent editions printed in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]]. It contained 335 songs, went through several editions, and became one of the most popular southern tunebooks in the 19th century. In 1867 Walker claimed over 600,000 copies had been sold. Walker added an appendix of additional tunes in 1840 with a further enlargement in 1847. An 1854 revision deleted several tunes and added still more.  The present edition is a facsimile reprint of the 1854 edition.

In 1866, Walker published a tunebook entitled ''[[The Christian Harmony]]'', in which he changed from four shape to seven shape notation. He incorporated over half of the contents of ''The Southern Harmony'' in the ''Christian Harmony.''  Walker died on September 30, 1887.

The ''Southern Harmony'' has remained unchanged since 1854, unlike its counterpart the ''[[Sacred Harp]]'', which went through several revisions in the 20th century. About 75% of the songs are presented in three-part harmony.

Besides Walker, notable contributors to ''Southern Harmony'' included [[Matilda T. Durham]] and [[John Gill Landrum]].<ref name="SteelHulan2010">{{cite book|author1=David Warren Steel|author2=Richard H. Hulan|title=The Makers of the Sacred Harp|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xt_h13E3k60C&pg=PA114|year=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-07760-9|pages=114–}}</ref>