Carden, Allen D. The Missouri Harmony; or a Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, and Anthems, from eminent Authors: With an Introduction to the Grounds and Rudiments of Music... Cincinnati: unknown, unknown. [8830]
This rare tunebook lacks the title page. Due to the number of pages we know it was published sometime between 1820 and 1834.
Full worn leather, oblong 13 cm (5 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches, begins at Preface p. iii.-(xx.), (21)-26, 31-34, 37-199 (1); the last leaf is badly tattered with loss. Defective: lacking the title page and 3 leaves (6 pp.) Poor. Hardcover.
Unable to match the Stanislaw number, but earlier than the 1835 supplement edition, which places it between 1820 and 1834. A four-shape shape-note tunebook.
Allen Dickenson Carden (1792-1859) b. Tennessee; d. Franklin, Tennessee. "Singing-school teacher and tunebook compiler. Nothing is known of his early activities or training, but in 1817 he was active as a teacher in Tennesee, Kentucky, and Virginia, and in 1823 he taught the first singing-schools in Nashville. His first tunebook, Missouri Harmony (published in St. Louis, printed in Cincinnati, 1820, rev. 1850/R1975), was the most popular tunebook of the South and West until the Civil War, and went through 22 editions by 1857. Carden procured music type and published his other tunebooks himself; The Western Harmony (Nashville, 1824) and United States Harmony (Nashville, 1829) [but they] did not achieve the success of Missouri Harmony, however. Carden remained in and around Nashville from 1830 to 1850, when he moved to Williamson County (probably Franklin, Tennessee)." - David L. Crouse, The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.