The Kentucky Harmony is a shape note tunebook, published in 1816 by Ananias Davisson.
[3] The Kentucky Harmony was influenced by the work of John Wyeth and his two "Repositories of Sacred Music", with 98 of the tunes in Kentucky Harmony also being found in Wyeth's books.
But Davisson rarely printed any piece of music exactly as it appeared in the books of others.
Unlike some books printed prior to and after it, the Kentucky Harmony consistently contained four part settings for its tunes.
Irving Lowens considered the Kentucky Harmony "one of the most important and influential collections of American folk hymnody ever compiled..." Despite the name Kentucky Harmony, Davisson lived most of his life in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.