The New Harp of Columbia is a seven-shape shape note tune book first published in 1867 in Knoxville, Tennessee by Marcus Lafayette Swan.
[3] During the Civil War, Marcus Swan supported the Confederacy, and fled to Bellefonte, Alabama, when the Union Army occupied Knoxville.
Musicologist Dorothy Horn suggests the success of The New Harp is due to its excellent printing and its larger than normal sample of standard tunes favored by various Protestant denominations.
Marcus Swan kept much of the material from The Harp of Columbia, but also included several tunes by popular hymn composer Lowell Mason and several of his own compositions.
[2] Along with Swan's compositions, The New Harp includes songs such as "Coronation" by Oliver Holden, "Easter Anthem" and "Rose of Sharon" by William Billings, "Creation" by Nehemiah Shumway, "Arlington" by Thomas Arne, and "Duke Street" by John Hatton.