Ananias Davisson was a singing school

Singing school

Historically, singing schools have been strongly affiliated with Protestant Christianity. Some are held under the auspices of particular Protestant denominations that maintain a tradition of a cappella singing, such as the Church of Christ and the Primitive Baptists...

 teacher, printer and compiler of shape note

Shape note

Shape notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational and community singing. The notation, introduced in 1801, became a popular teaching device in American singing schools...

 tunebooks. Davisson was born February 2, 1780 in Shenandoah County, Virginia

Shenandoah County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 35,075 people, 14,296 households, and 10,064 families residing in the county. The population density was 68 people per square mile . There were 16,709 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...

. He spent his last years living on a farm at Weyer's Cave, about 14 miles from Dayton, Virginia

Dayton, Virginia

Dayton is a town in Rockingham County, Virginia, United States. The population is 1,530 as of the 2010 census. It is included in the Harrisonburg, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Dayton is located at...

, and died October 21, 1857. He is buried in the Massanutten-Cross Keys Cemetery, Rockingham County, Virginia

Rockingham County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 67,725 people, 25,355 households, and 18,889 families residing in the county. The population density was 80 people per square mile . There were 27,328 housing units at an average density of 32 per square mile...

. Davisson was a member and ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church.

He is best known for his 1816 compilation the Kentucky Harmony

Kentucky Harmony

The Kentucky Harmony is a shape note tunebook, published in 1816 by Ananias Davisson. It is generally considered the first Southern shape-note tunebook....

(Harrisonburg, Virginia), which is generally considered the first Southern shape-note tunebook. Composer and publisher William B. Blake

William Burdine Blake, Sr.

William Burdine Blake, Sr. was a music composer and newspaper publisher. He was born January 21, 1852, in London, Ohio. He moved to the area of Dayton, Virginia in the early 1870s. There he worked with the publishing house of the Ruebush-Kieffer Company. Blake remained with Ruebush-Kieffer until...

 said it was "a book characteristic of that period, abounding in minor tunes." Other books published by Davisson were A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia: 1820), Introduction to Sacred Music, Extracted from the Kentucky Harmony and Chiefly Intended for the Benefit of Young Scholars, (Harrisonburg, Virginia: 1821), and A Small Collection of Sacred Music (Harrisonburg, Virginia: 1825). According to musicologist George Pullen Jackson

George Pullen Jackson

George Pullen Jackson was an American educator and musicologist.Jackson was a native of Monson, Maine. He was a pioneer in the field of Southern hymnody. Many consider him the "most diligent scholar of fasola singing" in the 20th century and one of the foremost musicologists of American folk songs...

, Davisson's compilations are "pioneer repositories of a sort of song that the rural South really liked." Perhaps his best-known tune is "Idumea," a minor tune very popular in Southern shape note circles and featured in the movie Cold Mountain

Cold Mountain (film)

Cold Mountain is a 2003 war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charles Frazier...

.

In addition to his own tunebooks, Davisson also printed Songs of Zion by James P. Carrell

James P. Carrell

James P. Carrell , of Lebanon, Virginia, was a minister, singing teacher, composer and songbook compiler. He compiled two songbooks in the four-shape shape note tradition.-Musical compilations:...

(1821)