History of The Southern Harmony
The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion was compiled by William "Singin' Billy" Walker and printed in New Haven, Connecticut in 1835, with subsequent editions printed in 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.
William Walker was born in 1809 in South Carolina, and grew up near Spartanburg. He became a Baptist song leader and shape note "singing master". Walker and Benjamin Franklin White, publisher of the Sacred Harp, married sisters. In 1866, Walker published a tunebook entitled 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. William Walker died on September 24, 1875.
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