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Browsing named entities in Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3 (ed. Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950.). You can also browse the collection for 1736 AD or search for 1736 AD in all documents.

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Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3 (ed. Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950.), Book III (continued) (search)
ise on harmony, the first crude attempt made in America to compose sacred music, a quarter of a century before William Billings published his New England psalm singer. The chorus singing of the brothers and sisters at Ephrata was well reputed in colonial times, visitors commenting on the impressive cadence of the chorals and hymns of the combined choirs, and the peculiar sweetness and weird beauty of the song of the sisterhood. Hymn books were printed for them by Franklin in 1730, 1732, and 1736, by Saur in 1739, and subsequently by their own Ephrata press, the most complete edition being that of 1766, entitled Das Paradisische Wunderspiel. The hymn book of 1739 (Zionitischer Weyrauch-Hugel oder Myrrhen-Berg) had already been a stupendous collection consisting of 654 songs and an appendix with 38 more, 820 pages in all. The edition of 1766 was even larger, with 441 songs by Beissel alone, and an equal number by others, divided into songs by the brothers, the sisters, and the laity.