Joseph Funk

Life

Born: 6 April 1778, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Died: 24 December 1862, Singers Glen, Virginia

Biography

Joseph Funk was an American composer, music teacher, and compiler of music books. He invented a unique seven-shape note system in 1851 for his book, Harmonia Sacra. In 1847, he established the first Mennonite printing house in the United States, at Mountain Valley, Virginia (renamed Singers Glen in 1860). Funk and his sons were active in organizing and teaching many singing schools in Virginia. Joseph Funk published his Compilation of Genuine Church Music in 1832, renamed Harmonia Sacra in 1851. It is still being published and used, now in its 26th Edition (2008), with singings in more than twenty locations annually.

View the Wikipedia article on Joseph Funk.

List of choral works

A. BY TITLE

Christian Hope Confidence Contemplation (Anonymous)

Divinity Eden of Love Greenwood

Protection Resignation

B. BY FIRST LINE

Awake, awake the sacred song How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord How sweet to reflect on these joys that await me

My Shepherd will supply my need My soul would fain indulge a hope Savior, visit thy plantation

When Hannah, pressed with grief

Arrangements by Joseph Funk

• Wallace (Deodatus Dutton)

Other works not listed above (See Template:CheckMissing for possible reasons and solutions)

• Contemplation

Click here to search for this composer on CPDL

Publications

• Funk, Joseph, Compiler. 1816. Die allgemein nützliche Choral-Music. Harrisonburg, Virginia: Laurentz Wartmann. 88 pp.
• Funk, Joseph, Compiler. 1832. A Compilation of Genuine Church Music. Winchester, Pennsylvania: Republican Press. Second Edition, 1835; Third Edition, 1842; Fourth Edition, 1847.
• Funk, Joseph, Compiler. 1851. Harmonia Sacra: A Compilation of Genuine Church Music, Fifth Edition. Mountain Valley, Virginia: Authors. Sixth Edition, 1854; Seventh Edition, 1855; Eighth Edition, 1857; Ninth Edition, 1858; Tenth Edition, 1860; Eleventh Edition, 1866.
• Funk, Joseph, Compiler. 1876. The New Harmonia Sacra, Fifteenth Edition. Singers Glen, Virginia: Glen Publishing Co.

References

• Eskew, Harry. 1966. Joseph Funk's "Allgemein Nützliche Choral-Music" (1816). Reports of the Society for the History of Germans in Maryland 32:38-46.
• Lewis, Vera et al. 1992. Joseph Funk. Published online at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Funk-410. Accessed 27 September 2021.
• Wayland, John W. 1911. Joseph Funk: Father of Song in Northern Virginia. The Pennsylvania-German [Magazine] 12:580-594. Article reprinted separately by Ruebush-Kieffer Publishing, Dayton, Virginia, in 1912.

External links

• Harmonia Sacra website
• IMSLP Site: Scans of Editions 10, 13, 15, 18, 20
• Wayland 1911 at Archive.org