Sacred Harp
Sacred Harp singing is an American tradition of sacred choral music that took root in the American South. It is part of the larger tradition of shape note singing.
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2 Singings 3 Origins of the music 4 Volumes of music entitled "The Sacred Harp" 5 Resources |
The tradition takes its name from its distinctive musical notation. In the rural United States, singing schools sprung up in the eighteenth century that provided instruction in choral singing, especially for the use of churches. In 1801, a book called The Easy Instructor by William Smith and William Little was published for the use of this movement; its distinguishing feature was the use of four separate shapes that indicated the notes according to the rules of solfege. A triangle indicated fa, a circle sol, a square la and a diamond, mi. To avoid proliferating shapes excessively, each shape (and its associated syllable) except for mi was assigned to two notes of the musical scale. A major scale in the system would be noted Fa - Sol - La - Fa - Sol - La - Mi - Fa.
The shape notes were abandoned in New England shortly after their invention, but they took root in the regions of Appalachia and the southern United States. They were specifically adapted for the dissemination of sacred music in books such as William Walker's Southern Harmony, published in 1835, and Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King's The Sacred Harp, published in 1844. The Sacred Harp, now distributed in several different versions, ultimately came to be the shapenote tradition with the largest number of participants.
The tradition involves unaccompanied, a capella choral singing. The pitch at which the music is sung is relative; there is no instrument to give the singers a starting point. Music includes hymns and what are called fuguing tunes, which are not actually fugues but resemble them in having each voice enter in succession; technically, they are canons.
Sacred Harp singers traditionally sit in a square, with rows of chairs or pews on each side of the square for each part: treble (soprano), alto, tenor, and bass. The treble and tenor sections are often mixed, with men and women singing the notes an octave apart. Typically, there is no single leader or conductor; rather, the participants take turns in leading. The leader for a particular round selects a song from the book, and "calls" it by its number. Conducting is done in an open-palm style, standing in the middle of the square facing the tenors.
Although Sacred Harp music is exclusively religious in content (Protestant Christian), Sacred Harp singing normally occurs not in church services, but in special gatherings or "singings" arranged for the purpose. Singings can be local, regional, statewide, or national. The more ambitious singings include an ample potluck dinner in the middle of the day.
In recent years, Sacred Harp singing has experienced a resurgence in popularity, as it is discovered by new participants who did not grow up in the tradition. As such, it is now a national phenomenon, and is strongly represented in locations such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Boston, as well as in its original southern territory. There are even a few Sacred Harp groups in other nations. Non-southern singers typically strive to follow the original southern customs at their singings, and participants from the original tradition sometimes travel outside the South to help teach the traditional ways.
The music used in Sacred Harp singing, particularly the music in The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition, is eclectic. Most of the songs can be assigned to one of four historical layers.
The first book containing this title was compiled by John Hoyt Hickok and printed in Lewiston, Pennsylvania in 1832. The second was compiled by Lowell and Timothy Mason and printed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1834. The third was compiled by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King and printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1844. The Sacred Harp of White and King is the book that grew into a southern folk tradition, and it is this book (in one of several current editions) that people speak of when they speak of singing Sacred Harp.
B. F. White (1800-1879), of Harris County, Georgia, and E. J. King (ca. 1821-1844), of Talbot County, Georgia, collaborated to compile, transcribe, and compose tunes, and publish a book of over 250 hymn and folk tunes. King died soon after the book was published, and White was left to guide its growth. He was responsible for organizing singing schools and singing conventions in which The Sacred Harp was used as the textbook. During his lifetime, the book would go through three revisions - 1850, 1859, and 1869. The first two new editions simply added appendices of new songs to the back of the book. In 1869 a more extensive revision was undertaken, removing some of the less popular songs, and adding new ones in their places. From the original 262 pages, the book was expanded to 429 by 1869.
Three revisions of and one companion book to The Sacred Harp are currently in use at Sacred Harp singing conventions:
The music and its notation
Singings
Origins of the music
There are a few additional songs in The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition that cannot be assigned to any of these four layers: some very old songs of European origin, two songs by the little-known classical composer Ignaz Pleyel, and even a couple of hymns by Lowell Mason, the man who was largely responsible for the decline and loss of the shape note tradition in all but its rural Southern stronghold.Volumes of music entitled "The Sacred Harp"
History
Current Status
The Denson book contains an extensive introduction that explains how to sing Sacred Harp music and how to hold a singing. Other books likewise include sections on the musical rudiments.
Resources
Books
See also the bibliographic entries under Shape note.External links
