Musselmann, S. M. Die neue Choral Harmonie, enthaltend die vornehmsten Kirchen Melodien, eingerichtet zum Gebrauche aller christlichen Religionen von jeden Benennunen, und auf drei Stimmen gesetzt; Absonderlich eingerichtet zum öffentlichen Gottesdienste, als: Kirchen, Versammlungen und Singschulen. Harrisburg, Pa.: Hickok und Cantine, 1844. First Edition. [8833]
Leather spine, original blue paper over boards now covered with white red-striped paper, some of which is missing from the front. Oblong 13.5 cm (5 1/5 x 9 inches), old paste stains on the end papers from the applied paper covering. Title page with decorative border; 160 pp., text complete, some sections with dark foxing. Good. Hardcover.
Stanislaw 204. A four-shape shape-note tunebook. Texts in German and English.
Samuel Musselmann (1818-1899), b. in a Pennsylvania Mennonite family, a gravestone carver by trade; later in life he moved to Carroll Co., Illinois, where he was ordained a minister and elder in the Church of the Brethren. "This Samuel is best known locally as the compiler of a tunebook, Die Neue Choral Harmonie, a harmony singing book published from Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County [PA] in 1844. The book contains tunes compose or arranged by Musselman with local names - "Franconia", "Hilltown", "Milgord", "Springfield", and "Alpper [Upper] Saucon". - Forrest Moyer, Our Immigrant Heritage: Musselman, Mennonite Heritage Center online.
With a signed provenance card from the collection of A. Merril Smoak, Jr., DWS.