Introduction

Biography

William was the son of Ab­sa­lom Abra­ham Walk­er, hus­band of Amy Shands Go­light­ly, and bro­ther-in-law of Ben­ja­min Frank­lin White.

Musically gift­ed, by age 18 Walk­er was lead­ing con­gre­ga­tion­al sing­ing at the First Bap­tist Church in Spar­tan­burg. He col­lect­ed and ar­ranged folk tunes, and with Ben­ja­min White par­ti­ci­pat­ed in sing­ing schools and com­pil­ing me­lo­dies from south­ern Ap­pa­la­chia and camp meet­ings.

Works

After mov­ing to Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut, Walk­er pub­lished The South­ern Har­mo­ny and Mu­sic­al Com­pan­ion in 1835, but gave no cre­dit to White, who pub­lished The Sac­red Harp, a com­pet­ing vol­ume, in 1844. Both used the shap­ed note mu­sic no­ta­tion sys­tem.

Walker’s oth­er works in­clude:

• The Chris­tian Har­mo­ny (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: E. W. Mill­er, 1873)