James Landrum White (January 22, 1847 – March 8, 1925) was a shape note singing teacher, composer, and a reviser of his father's shape note tunebook known as The Sacred Harp. Musical career In 1844, three years before J. L. White's birth, B. F. White and Elisha J. King published The Sacred Harp, using the four-shape shape note system of notation. It was in the musical tradition established by this book that J. L. White would carry out his musical career. This career was a curious and not entirely successful one. Although J. L. White was the most musically eminent son of the tradition's revered founder, his tastes in sacred music were quite different from his father's--and indeed, from a great number of other Sacred Harp singers. During his career J. L. White was involved in editorial work on at least four tune books, two of which can be viewed as his attempts to reshape the musical practice of the Sacred Harp singing community. First, during his father's lifetime, J. L. was heavily involved (according to J. S. James) in the 1869–1870 (4th) edition of his father's book. B. F. White died in 1879. In 1884, J. L. White and his brother, B. F., Jr., released the New Sacred Harp. It was a seven-shape note tune book of 192 pages (a little over 200 songs). Fewer than 20% of its songs were found in the Sacred Harp, and less than 5% of the songs were written in a minor key. Many of the old songs appeared with altered harmony. According to Gavin James Campbell (see reference below), this book was not a success: Most singers held fast to their disintegrating 1869 editions rather than convert to The New Sacred Harp. Although a few orders continued to trickle in, the Musical Million [a leading shape note periodical] advertised the book for less than a year, and made no mention of it after 1890. It was, however, probably more popular than previously supposed. For example, in 1891 singers in Leon County, Texas were singing "every Sunday evening, using New Sacred Harp." As late as August 1896, the Withlacoochee Musical Convention, meeting in Berrien County, Georgia, adopted The Sacred New Harp "for the next annual session." In 1897, White and his nephew Charles P. Byrd, responding to a demand for the older book, issued a reprint of the fourth edition of the Sacred