Camp meeting

==Music and hymn singing==
The camp meeting tradition fostered a tradition of music and [[hymn]] singing with strong oral, improvisatory, and spontaneous elements.

Hymns were taught and [[rote learning|learned by rote]], and a spontaneous and [[improvisation (music)|improvisatory element]] was prized. Both tunes and words were created, changed, and adapted in true [[folk music]] fashion:<ref>Annie J. Randall, "A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin Myths of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'", in ''Music, Power, and Politics'', edited by Annie J. Randall (Routledge, 2004) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=fafKzST-pZwC&dq=annie+j+randall+%22a+censorship+of+forgetting+origins+and+origin+myths+of+battle+hymn+of+the+republic%22+in+music+power+and+politics&pg=RA1-PA7 Google books])</ref>

<blockquote>Specialists in nineteenth-century American religious history describe camp meeting music as the creative product of participants who, when seized by the spirit of a particular sermon or prayer, would take lines from a preacher's text as a point of departure for a short, simple melody. The melody was either borrowed from a preexisting tune or made up on the spot. The line would be sung repeatedly, changing slightly each time, and shaped gradually into a stanza that could be learned easily by others and memorized quickly.<ref>Annie J. Randall, "A Censorship of Forgetting: Origins and Origin Myths of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'", in ''Music, Power, and Politics'', edited by Annie J. Randall (Routledge, 2004), page 16. ([https://books.google.com/books?id=fafKzST-pZwC&dq=annie+j+randall+%22a+censorship+of+forgetting+origins+and+origin+myths+of+battle+hymn+of+the+republic%22+in+music+power+and+politics&pg=RA1-PA7 Google books])</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>Spontaneous song became a marked characteristic of the camp meetings. Rough and irregular couplets or stanzas were concocted out of Scripture phrases and every-day speech, with liberal interspersing of Hallelujahs and refrains. Such ejaculatory hymns were frequently started by an excited auditor during the preaching, and taken up by the throng, until the meeting dissolved into a "singing-ecstasy" culminating in general hand-shaking. Sometimes they were given forth by a preacher, who had a sense of rhythm, under the excitement of his preaching and the agitation of his audience. Hymns were also composed more deliberately out of meeting, and taught to the people or lined out from the pulpit.<ref name="benson">{{cite book|last=Benson|first=Louis FitzGerald|publisher=George H. Doran Company|year=1915|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FQuAAAAYAAJ&q=camp+meeting+hymns|access-date=3 May 2009|page=292 | title=The English hymn: its development and use in worship}}</ref></blockquote>

Collections of camp meeting hymns were published, which served both to propagate tunes and texts that were commonly used, and to document the most commonly sung tunes and texts.<ref name="benson"/> Example hymnals include ''The Pilgrams' songster; or, A choice collection of spiritual songs'' (1828),<ref>Hinde, Thomas S. (1828). The Pilgrams' songster; or, A choice collection of spiritual songs. A. Wright & A. Wolliscroft</ref> ''The Camp-meeting Chorister'' (1830) <ref>{{cite book|title=The Camp-meeting Chorister, Or, A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: For the Pious of All Denominations to be Sung at Camp Meetings, During Revivals of Religion and on Other Occasions|year=1830|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3u1ilbyQ1oC|publisher=Clarke|access-date=3 May 2009}}</ref> and ''The Golden Harp'' (1857)<ref>{{cite book|title=The Golden Harp|year=1857|url=https://archive.org/details/goldenharporcam00henrgoog |quote=camp meeting hymns.| first=George W. | last=Henry | publisher=Published by the author}}</ref>

Many of these songs were republished in [[shape note]] [[Song book|songbooks]] such as [[Ananias Davisson#A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony|A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony]] (1820),<ref>Some camp meetings songs from Davisson's ''Supplement'' have been republished in the [[Shenandoah Harmony]] (2013); for example, recordings of ''319 Salutation'' are easily found on [[YouTube]].</ref>  the [[Sacred Harp]] (1844), and dozens of other publications; they can typically be distinguished by the reuse and re-arrangement of certain lines of lyrics from other songs, re-set to a new melody and sometimes containing new lyrics. Many of these camp songs are also set in a "[[Call and response (music)|call and response]]" format, typically, every line of lyric is followed by the words "''Glory [[Hallelujah]]''!" (although this varies, and other phrases or combinations can be used as well), which allows for easy audience participation in their original format, as the audience can call back the response even if they do not know the lyrics of the song itself. For example, the tune "[[Antioch of Pisidia|Antioch]] 277" from the Sacred Harp reads:

<blockquote><poem>I know that my [[Redeemer (Christianity)|Redeemer]] lives, Glory, Hallelujah!
What comfort this sweet sentence gives, Glory Hallelujah!
Shout on, pray on, we're gaining ground, Glory Hallelujah!
The dead's alive and the lost is found, Glory Hallelujah!
(F.C. Wood, 1850)</poem></blockquote>

The 20th-century American composer [[Charles Ives]] used the camp meeting phenomenon as a metaphysical basis for his [[Symphony No. 3 (Ives)]]. He incorporated hymn tunes and American Civil War-era popular songs (which are closely related to camp meeting songs) as part of the symphony's musical material. The piece was not premiered until 1946, almost 40 years after its composition, and the symphony was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1947.