The Barbershop Harmony Society, Sweet Adelines International, and Harmony Inc. host educational events including Harmony University, Directors University, and the International Educational Symposium, and international contests and conventions, recognizing international champion choruses and quartets.

In 1938, the first formal men's barbershop organization was formed, known as the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America ( S. P. E. B. S. Q. S. A ), and in 2004 rebranded itself and officially changed its public name to the Barbershop Harmony Society ( BHS ).

The Barbershop Harmony Society provides a highly organized competition structure for a cappella quartets and choruses singing in the barbershop style.

With about 2, 500 members in the United States and Canada, Harmony, Inc. uses the same rules in contest that the Barbershop Harmony Society uses.

Increased interest in modern a cappella ( particularly collegiate a cappella ) can be seen in the growth of awards such as the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards ( overseen by the Contemporary A Cappella Society ) and competitions such as the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella for college groups and the Harmony Sweepstakes for all groups.

These groups included the Shakers, the Harmony Society and the Ephrata Cloister.

Sophia ( wisdom ) | Virgin Sophia design on a Harmony Society doorway in Harmony, Pennsylvania, carved by Frederick Reichert Rapp ( 1775 – 1834 ).

Jakob Böhme was very influential to a number of Christian mystics and religious leaders, including George Rapp and the Harmony Society.

The college constructed its current campus on land donated by the Harmony Society.

The Harmony Society church in Old Economy Village | Old Economy Village, Pennsylvania.

The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in 1785.

On February 15, 1805, the group of approximately 400 followers formally organized the Harmony Society, placing all their goods in common.

The Society is best known for its worldly successes, most notably the establishment of three model communities, the first at Harmony, Pennsylvania ; the second, also called Harmony, in the Indiana Territory, now New Harmony, Indiana ; and the third and final town at Economy, now Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Johann Georg Rapp ( November 1, 1757 – August 7, 1847 ), also known as George Rapp, was the founder of the religious sect called Harmonists, Harmonites, Rappites, or the Harmony Society.

Rapp was able to secure a large tract of land in Pennsylvania and started his first commune, known as Harmonie or Harmony, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, where the Society existed from 1804 to 1815.

On February 15, 1805, the settlers at Harmony, Pennsylvania, signed articles of association to formally establish the Harmony Society in the United States.

Harmony Society building in Harmony, Pennsylvania, built in 1809.

Twin Oaks names all of its buildings after defunct communities, and " Harmony " is the name of one of the residences which also houses the community woodshop and main laundry area.

The Qing rulers changed the names on some of the principal buildings, to emphasise " Harmony " rather than " Supremacy ", made the name plates bilingual ( Chinese and Manchu ), and introduced Shamanist elements to the palace.

The grounds contain many fish ponds, cascades, bridges and fanciful buildings, including the Temple of Harmony, which stands in Mill Wood and has now been fully restored.

Disney's movie Perfect Harmony was filmed at buildings including the Old Mill.

Common meter hymns were interchangeable with a variety of tunes ; more than twenty musical settings of " Amazing Grace " circulated with varying popularity until 1835 when William Walker assigned Newton's words to a traditional song named " New Britain ", which was itself an amalgamation of two melodies (" Gallaher " and " St. Mary ") first published in the Columbian Harmony by Charles H. Spilman and Benjamin Shaw ( Cincinnati, 1829 ).

" Amazing Grace ", with the words written by Newton and joined with " New Britain ", the melody most currently associated with it, appeared for the first time in Walker's shape note tunebook Southern Harmony in 1847.

Rapp and his group of believers began meeting in Iptengen and eventually emigrated to the United States, where they established three communities: Harmony, Butler County, Pennsylvania ; Harmony ( later named New Harmony ), Posey County, Indiana ; and Economy, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Ten years later, the town was sold and the Harmonists moved westward to the Indiana Territory, where they established the town of Harmony, now called New Harmony, Indiana, and remained there from 1815 to 1825.

The Indiana settlement was sold to Robert Owen and was renamed New Harmony.

Main Article New Harmony, Indiana

( The town's name was changed to New Harmony after the Harmonists left in 1824.

Owen named the town New Harmony, and by May, the last of the Harmony Society's remaining members returned to Pennsylvania.

This was planned in New Harmony, but fulfilled when they arrived at Economy.

* New Harmony Historic District

* New Harmony, Indiana

* Arndt, Karl J. R. Harmony on the Wabash in Transition to Rapp's Divine Economy on the Ohio and Owen's New Moral World at New Harmony on the Wabash 1824 – 1826.

* Boomhower, Ray E. " New Harmony: Home to Indiana's Communal Societies.

In 1814 the Harmony Society moved to the Indiana Territory, where it initially acquired approximately of land along the Wabash River in Posey County and later acquired more.

Over the next ten years the Society built a thriving new community they called Harmonie or Harmony on the Wabash in the Indiana wilderness.

Once established at Harmony, Pennsylvania, the Society planned to replace the log dwellings with brick structures, but the group moved to the Indiana Territory before the plan was completed.

In 1822 William Herbert, a visitor to Harmony, Indiana, described the new brick church and the Harmonists ' craftsmanship:

* Arndt, Karl J. R. A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society 1814 – 1824.

* Arndt, Karl J. R. The Indiana Decade of George Rapp's Harmony Society: 1814 – 1824.

" The Woolen and Cotton Manufactory of the Harmony Society with Emphasis on the Indiana Years 1814 – 1825.