Ananias Davisson

Ananias Davisson (February 2, 1780 – October 21, 1857) was a singing school teacher, printer and compiler of shape note tunebooks.

[1][2] According to musicologist George Pullen Jackson, Davisson's compilations are "pioneer repositories of a sort of song that the rural South really liked.

[4] In 1804 he bought land in Rockingham County, supplementing his income as a farmer by conducting singing classes in the Shenandoah Valley.

[4] He established a printing shop in Harrisonburg in 1816, and in that year published the Kentucky Harmony, the first Southern shape note tunebook.

As a printer, he cultivated a network of singing school teachers and composers in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky who sold his tunebooks and sent him their own compositions.

[5] He spent his last years living on a farm at Weyer's Cave, about 14 miles from Dayton, Virginia, and died October 21, 1857.

[9] Even during the Davidson and Bourne days, Davisson traveled extensively to supplement his income by teaching singing schools.

[19] The tune is also featured in the motion picture Cold Mountain (2003), during the scene depicting the Battle of the Crater;[20] (the other shape song in the film, led in a church by Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland) is "I'm Going Home," page 282 in the Sacred Harp).

[22] The 2006 album Black Ships Ate the Sky by British experimental group Current 93 features several versions of "Idumea", each by a different vocalist, although only a couple use Davidsson's tune.