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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | About 490 items (15.0 linear feet) |
| Abstract | Brett Sutton (1948- ) was born and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. He eared as Masters degree in 1976 from the Curriculum of Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His thesis focused on African American spiritual folk singing around Raleigh and Durham, N.C. Peter Hartman (1959- ) earned a B.S. in 1975 UNC. Hartman, also a banjo player, joined Brett Sutton to explore their mutual interest in religious folk music. In 1976, they moved to southwestern Virginia where they worked on an NEH-funded project called Religious Folksongs in the Virginia Mountains. From this research, they produced a book and LP recording called Primitive Baptist Hymns of the Blue Ridge (UNC Press, 1982). The collection consists of sound recordings and documentation relating to Sutton and Hartman's NEH project. The folk hymn singing tradition of conservative Baptists in southwestern Virginia in worship services and congregational meetings were recorded in rural churches, and interviews and songs were collected in congregation members' homes. Supplemental information and transcripts include indices of texts, songs, and informants. Also available is an inventory and comparative summary of tunes collected and the NEH grant application, which includes a narrative about the purpose, significance, and scope of the project. |
| Creator | Sutton, Brett, 1948- .
Hartman, Peter, 1959- . |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Biographical Information
Brett Sutton was born in 1948 and raised in Champaign-Urbana, Ill. He was graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1970 with a Bachelors degree in English. After a period of work and pursuit of his musical interests, he enrolled in the Curriculum of Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned a Masters degree in 1976. His thesis project, entitled "The Gospel Hymn, Shaped Notes, and the Black Tradition," focused on African American spiritual folk singing around Raleigh and Durham, N.C. In 1982, Brett Sutton went on to earn a Ph.D. in anthropology and, in 1988, he earned a Masters in Library Science, all at UNC.
Peter Hartman was born in 1959 and graduated in 1975 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in business administration. Peter Hartman, also a banjo player, joined Brett Sutton to explore their mutual interest in religious folk music. In 1976, they moved to southwestern Virginia where they resided for eight months, the duration of the project documented in this collection, entitled "Religious Folksongs in the Virginia Mountains," funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This region of Virginia, including Franklin, Lloyd, Henry and Patrick counties, was chosen because of the numerous resources in the archaic spiritual folksong style. From this research, a book and LP recording were produced, Primitive Baptist Hymns of the Blue Ridge, published in 1982 by the University of North Carolina Press.
The collecting project investigated the relationships between many rural churches involved in the Primitive Baptist tradition in the Blue Ridge Mountains region, including white and African American congregations that attended the same churches up until the 1890s. A second emphasis was on other rural churches of the area: the Old Regular Baptists and other Baptist groups, the Pentecostal-Holiness sects, and the Church of the Brethren. Sutton and Hartman were mostly interested in collecting religious folksongs that are often unwritten, sometimes unknown to scholars, and variable from church to church and from tradition to tradition. The study revealed the importance of the music's presence in the community, the spiritual values that the music conveys, and why and how the music has survived.
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Scope and Content
The Brett Sutton and Peter Hartman collection consists of sound recordings and documentation. The folk hymn singing tradition of conservative Baptists in southwestern Virginia in worship services and congregational meetings were recorded in rural churches, including Long Branch Primitive Baptist, Spook Creek Church, Union Church, Hylton Thessalonia Church, and Red Hollow Church. Interviews and songs were collected in congregation members' homes. Interviewed were Amos Hash, William Holland, Guy Phillips, Lane Carter, Monroe Simpkins, Myrtle Wood, James Denton, Thomas Claytor, the Reverend M. D. Hart, Elder Clifton, and Mrs. Benny Clifton. Supplemental records and transcripts include indices of texts, songs, and informants. Also available is an inventory and comparative summary of tunes collected and the NEH grant application, which includes a narrative about the purpose, significance, and scope of the project.
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Series 1. Sound Recordings, 1976.
Sound recordings consist of reel-to-reel tapes recorded using an Uher reel-to-reel tape recorder and an omni-directional mic.
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Series 2. Documentation, 1976.
Documentation includes transcription and recording notes from interviews and church services as recorded by Brett Sutton and Peter Hartman for each field recording.
| Folder FT-591 - FT-807 |
Documentation #20042, Series: "2. Documentation, 1976." Folder FT-591 - FT-807 |
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Items Separated
Items are separated according to their format (FTs and documentation folders).
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