Editing William Walker (composer) (section)

== Tunebooks ==

Walker learned shape note music in [[singing school]]s; it had been used by Baptist and Methodist preachers in the [[Second Great Awakening]] to help spread Christianity in the South. Because the music could be read and sung by amateurs, hymns in shape note annotation became the centerpiece of many revivals and [[camp meeting]]s on the frontier. Walker composed his first piece of music at the age of 18.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Eskew|first1=Harry|title=A Bicentennial Tribute to William Walker|journal=Choral Journal|date=2009|volume=50|issue=1|pages=55–58|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=43020175&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=4 April 2018}}</ref>

In 1835, Walker published a tunebook entitled ''[[Southern Harmony|The Southern Harmony]]'', a compilation of hymns using the four-shape [[shape note]] system of notation. This collection was revised in 1840, 1847 and 1854. In 1846 he issued ''[[The Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist]]''. Intended as an appendix to the ''Southern Harmony'', the ''Pocket Harmonist'' contains numerous camp-meeting songs with their refrains.

After the Civil War, Walker published a tunebook entitled ''[[The Christian Harmony]]'' (1867), in which he adopted a seven-shape notation. He incorporated over half of the contents of ''The Southern Harmony'' into the ''Christian Harmony'', adding alto parts to those pieces which had lacked them. For the additional three shapes, Walker devised his own system - an inverted key-stone for "do", a quarter-moon for "re", and an isosceles triangle for "si" (or "ti"). Walker issued an expanded edition of ''Christian Harmony'' in 1873. In the same year, he published a collection of [[Sunday school]] songs entitled ''Fruits and Flowers.''

[[File:What Wondrous Love.jpg|thumb|left|What Wondrous Love Is This]]