Joseph Funk (1777-1862) - Find a Grave Memorial

Composer, Publisher. He was one of America's first musical pioneers to achieve wide-spread popularity. He incorporated into his music the 4-note-shape system that was so popular in congregational singing throughout the southern and midwest United States. He was referred to in his day as, "The Father of Song in the Southland." Born to German immigrant parents in Pennsylvania, Joseph was exposed to the the music of the Moravian settlers there early in life and it is believed this is where he learned his love and high regard for devotional music. After moving to the mountain valley of Virginia, he wrote and published his first music book, "Choral Music," in 1816, and continued to write and publish his sheet music and monthly musical magazines for the next forty-plus years. His most popular work, "Harmonia Sacra," has been republished at least 25 times and is still in print today. A man of limited formal education and largely self-taught, he was a landowner and farmer, a teacher and schoolmaster, a translator of religious treatises, a writer and head of his own printing and bindery company. The settlement of Mountain Valley, Virginia, grew up around his farmstead and, when a post office was established there in 1860, the village was renamed Singers Glen, to his honor.

Bio by: Be❤Polite