John Wyeth

For the American Confederate veteran and surgeon, see John Allan Wyeth. For the poet and painter, see John Allan Wyeth (poet).
John Wyeth
portrait of John Wyeth
Born(1770-03-31)March 31, 1770
DiedJanuary 23, 1858(1858-01-23) (aged 87)

John Wyeth (1770–1858) was a printer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania who is best-known for printing Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second (Harrisburg, PA: 1813), which marks an important transition in American music. Like the original Repository of 1810, Part Second used the four-shape system of Little and Smith in The Easy Instructor (Philadelphia, PA: 1801) to appeal to a wider audience; but its pioneering inclusion American folk tunes influenced all subsequent folk hymn, camp meeting, and shape note collections. Musicologist Warren Steel sees Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second as marking "the end of the age of New England composer-compilers (1770–1810) and the beginning of the age of southern collector-compilers (1816–1860)."[1]

  1. ^ David Warren Steel, "John Wyeth and the Development of Southern Folk Hymnody", Music from the Middle Ages Through the 20th Century: Essays in Honor of Gwynn McPeek, Carmelo P. Comberiati and Matthew C. Steel, eds. (London: Gordon & Breach, 1988), pp. 357–374. Available on-line at Steel. "John Wyeth and the Development of Southern Folk Hymnody". Retrieved 7 March 2021.