Hugh McGraw (February 20, 1931 – May 28, 2017)
was a leading figure in contemporary
Sacred Harp
Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The name is derived from ''The Sacred Harp'', a ubiquitous and historically important tune ...
singing. He was the General Chairman of the committee that created the 1991 Denson revision of ''The Sacred Harp'' and played an important role in promoting the spread of Sacred Harp singing. Sacred Harp scholar Buell Cobb has called him "perhaps the chief promoter and good will agent of Sacred Harp music".
Life
He was born in
Centralhatchee, Georgia to John Wesley McGraw, a railroad worker, and Lillie Ashley, who worked as a seamstress at the Sewell Manufacturing Company. When he was about three months old, his family moved to
Villa Rica, Georgia
Villa Rica (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese translation: Rich Village) is a city in Carroll and Douglas counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located roughly 30 miles west of Atlanta, a decision to develop housing on a large tract of land led ...
, where he lived to the age of 12. At that time, the family moved to
Bremen, Georgia
Bremen ( ) is a city in Haralson and Carroll counties, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,227, up from 4,579 at the 2000 census. Most of the city is in Haralson County, with a small portion in Carroll ...
.
In adulthood he pursued a career in business in Bremen, managing a clothing manufacturing plant.
While he grew up, he was not a Sacred Harp singer, but was acquainted with the tradition. In an interview conducted in connection with his award of a
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
National Heritage Fellowship
The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...
(1982), he remarked:
His involvement with Sacred Harp singing began when he attended a singing session in 1953. There, he developed an instant strong enthusiasm, and persuaded a second cousin (his "Uncle Bud" McGraw, a
singing school
A singing school is a school in which students are taught to sightread vocal music. Singing schools are a long-standing cultural institution in the Southern United States. While some singing schools are offered for credit, most are informal program ...
teacher) to teach him about Sacred Harp music. He also sought out lessons from
A. M. Cagle.
McGraw then became a Sacred Harp composer, several of whose songs appear in the 1960 and subsequent editions of ''The Sacred Harp''.
Leadership in the Sacred Harp community
Sacred Harp scholars Buell Cobb and John Bealle, cited below, describe a Sacred Harp career containing several major accomplishments. McGraw helped stem the decline of Sacred Harp singing on its original home territory by offering a great number of
singing school
A singing school is a school in which students are taught to sightread vocal music. Singing schools are a long-standing cultural institution in the Southern United States. While some singing schools are offered for credit, most are informal program ...
s, a practice he continued throughout his life. He modernized the
nonprofit company
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
that publishes the "Denson" edition of the book, the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, and presided over the committees that created both the 1971 version and the current 1991 version of this edition. He was also a member of the 1960 committee. He led the Sacred Harp Publishing Company into the business of creating recordings of Sacred Harp music, made by groups of experienced singers and serving to this day as a valuable source of information on traditional singing practices. McGraw also made many gestures of friendship to newcomer singers, including those outside the South, and can be considered one of the factors responsible for the extensive geographic spread of Sacred Harp singing in recent decades.
Bealle notes that during the mid to late 1970s, McGraw repeatedly urged newcomer singers to adopt the traditional forms of the Southern singing convention, including the hollow square seating arrangement, rotating leading of songs, singing of the note names before the stanzas, dinner on the grounds, and public prayer. McGraw's efforts were successful,
[The adherence of outside-the-South singings to traditional practice can be seen in the compiled annual Minutes of Sacred Harp singing conventions, posted on line a]
and with time Sacred Harp singing outside the South evolved from a kind of artificially-cultivated folk music performance into a more natural and spontaneous experience, in which procedure and
performance practice
Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which ...
are determined by well-established custom.
Notes
References
*Bealle, John (1997) ''Public Worship, Private Faith: Sacred Harp and American Folksong''
*Cobb, Buell E. (2001) ''The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music''. University of Georgia Press.
*Miller, Kiri (2004) "First Sing the Notes": Oral and Written Traditions in Sacred Harp Transmission. ''American Music'' 22: 475-501. Narrates a 1985 encounter in which McGraw strongly influenced a neophyte group of Illinois singers. Available on
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
.
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Sacred Harp
2017 deaths
1931 births
Musicians from Georgia (U.S. state)
People from Bremen, Georgia
People from Villa Rica, Georgia
National Heritage Fellowship winners