John Wesley published three tune books in two-decade intervals for the evangelical British Methodist movement within the Church of England with its varied audiences and diverse musical tastes. S T Kimbrough, Jr. and Carlton R. Young have published the only facsimile reprints, with critical introductions and notes, of the first two collections (1742 and 1761).
Wesley intended his third collection, Sacred Harmony, or a choice Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Set to Music in two or three parts for the Voice, Harpsichord & Organ (1780), henceforth SH 1780, as a musical companion to his monumental A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780). This edition of SH 1780 provides the ecclesial, cultural, and musical contexts of the volume; traces the sources of each tune and text (with textual variants), provides indexes of texts and tunes, and appropriate appendices.
The copy used for this facsimile includes the autograph of John Wesley and the date of January 10, 1780, on an opening flyleaf, his marginal notes, and is housed in the archives of Old St. George's United Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Each page of this facsimile edition of SH 1780 has been thoroughly cleaned of bleedthrough and blotches.
