As evidenced by its title page, the Shawm is genuinely encyclopedic, containing a vast hoard of new
tunes by its editors and their friends--including several tunes with dates indicating that Lowell Mason probably composed them for inclusion in it--and vast numbers of older tunes from a variety of sources, including a smattering of New England Psalm tunes by Read, Billings, Kimball and others. In fact, the book is so compendious that it appears the publishers chose to issue it on very thin paper and very small type to cut down on size and weight (even with so many tunes and set pieces, it's only 352 pages long.) I particularly recommend Thomas Hastings' tune Honolulu, Jacob Kimball's Woburn, Daniel Read's fuguing setting of "Sweet is the day of sacred rest," Devotion. If you encounter a copy on Ebay or in the shops, pick it up, if you can. It's well worth exploring, even if you have to transcribe the tunes to sing with others. |