{{Short description, Hymn book The ''Union Harmony'' is a shape note hymn and tune book compiled by William Caldwell. The book was released in 1837, and is part of the larger tradition of shape note singing. William Caldwell was born in 1801 in Tennessee, the son of Anthony Caldwell and Elizabeth Aiken. William Caldwell first married Cinderella Blackburn in 1829. After her death, he married Harriet Rebecca Meek. William's children include Tillman A., Orville H., Cordula J., Leonidas Beecher, Eliza, Catherine Josephine, Mary Alice, Evaline V., and Amy H. Caldwell. The Caldwells moved from

Jefferson County, Tennessee Jefferson County is an exurban county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,683. Its county seat is Dandridge. Jefferson County is part of the Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area with neigh ...

some time after 1850 to

Fannin County, Texas Fannin County is a county in the far northeast of the U.S. state of Texas, on the border with Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, its population was 35,662. The county seat is Bonham. The county was named for James Fannin, who commanded the grou ...

. William died in 1857 and Harriet in 1858. ''Union Harmony or Family Musician'' was a four shape tunebook, registered in 1834, but printed in 1837 in

Maryville, Tennessee Maryville is a city in and the county seat of Blount County, Tennessee, and is a suburb of Knoxville. Its population was 31,907 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Area and a short distance from popular tourist de ...

by Ferdinand A. Parham. It contained 151 tunes, of which 43 songs are credited to William Caldwell. Many of these tunes, Caldwell wrote, were "not entirely original, but he has harmonized, and therefore claims them." David Music called this book "The First East Tennessee Tunebook". Writers from George Pullen Jackson to Harry Eskew consider the chief contribution on Caldwell and the ''Union Harmony'' to be the preservation of folk songs of the oral tradition. ''Union Harmony'' went through only one printing. Though long out of print, Caldwell's songs have survived in other shape note tune books, such as ''The Good Old Songs'' by C. H. Cayce, ''The

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 ...

'' by B. F. White and E. J. King, and more recently (2013), the ''

Shenandoah Harmony The Shenandoah Harmony is a 2013 republication of the works of Ananias Davisson (1780–1857) and other composers of his era, in the format used by modern shape note singing groups. Although a number of new shape note tune books were compiled an ...

''.

43 tunes credited to Caldwell

Amazing Grace, Bethesda, Canton, Concord, Erie, Family Bible, Fortitude, Frugality, Funeral Thought, Home, Hopewell, Humility, Iantha, Imandra, Immensity, Intercession, Joyful Sound, Loving Kindness, Majesty, Malinda, Merit, Missionary Hymn, Mount Carmel, New Hope, New Market, Newport, Redemption, Redeeming Love, Saint Paul, Sharon, Solemn Thought, Star in the East, Sweet Prospect, The Good Shepherd, The Mariner, The Mouldering Vine, The Pilgrim's Lot, The Shepherd's Joy, Tranquility, Union, Wakefield, Westford, Zion's Call

References

*Jackson, George Pullen, ''White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands'' *Music, David W., ''William Caldwell's Union Harmony (1837): The First East Tennessee Tunebook'', The Hymn (July 1987). *Stanislaw, Richard J., ''A Checklist of Four-Shape Shape-Note Tunebooks'' *Steel, David Warren, with Richard H. Hulan, ''The Makers of the Sacred Harp'' (2010), pp. 96-97. *Webb, George Eliga. "William Caldwell's ''Union Harmony'' (1837)," M.C.M. thesis, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1975. Shape note