Introduction

Biography

Davisson was a print­er in Rock­ing­ham Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia. He is best known for his Ken­tuc­ky Har­mo­ny (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1816), ge­ne­ral­ly con­sidered the first shape-note tune book in the south­ern Unit­ed States.

Composer and publ­ish­er Will­iam B. Blake said it was a book char­ac­ter­is­tic of that pe­ri­od, abound­ing in mi­nor tunes.

Musicologist George Pull­en Jack­son said Da­vis­son’s com­pi­la­tions were pio­neer re­po­si­tor­ies of a sort of song that the rur­al South real­ly liked.

Works

Perhaps his best-known tune is Idu­mea, a mi­nor tune ve­ry po­pu­lar in South­ern shape note circ­les, and fea­tured in the 2003 mo­vie Cold Mount­ain.

Davisson’s oth­er works in­clude:

• A Sup­ple­ment to the Ken­tuc­ky Har­mo­ny (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1820)
• Introduction to Sacr­ed Mu­sic, Ex­tract­ed from the Ken­tuc­ky Har­mo­ny and Chief­ly In­tend­ed for the Be­ne­fit of Young Schol­ars (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1821)
• Songs of Zi­on, by James P. Car­rell (print­er) (1821)
• A Small Col­lect­ion of Sacr­ed Mu­sic (Har­ris­on­burg, Vir­gin­ia: 1825)