Shape Note or Sacred Harp

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,MiriamKilmer
Date: 09 Feb 01 - 03:15 PM

Sorry I forgot to make those URL's into blue clickies. http://www.shapenotes.com/sale/presentjoys.asp
Shapenote Recordings Index

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 05:07 PM

There was a really nice feature about Sacred Harp on All things Considered just now. Here's the link (NPR)

I really like the pictures they have there as well. Almost everyone has folks with thier mouths wide open singing.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 05:10 PM

I should proof better: Almost every picture has folks with their mouths wide open singing.

I should also add that male pattern baldness seems to be endemic in the traditional singing community. :-)

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 05:36 PM

I heard the beginning of that story also. Thanks for posting the link.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 10:01 PM

Nice to see this thread refreshed.

In fact, I've been thinking shape note lately because we're planning to do "Star in the East" at a church service during this Christmas season. Problem is there are four of us (2 men, 2 women) and only three parts to the music, as far as I can find. We're going to double one of the parts by having one of the guys sing the same part as I do but an octave lower.

Are the two treble clefs soprano and alto? Is the bass clef bass or tenor or what? Which one is considered melody? I'm calling melody the 2nd treble clef down, and that's what we're doubling. (Besides, I can always use the help...)

Does anyone know if "Star in the East" notation exists somewhere in four parts?

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Barbara
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 10:12 PM

The melody is in the tenor part in traditional shape note notation, and originally there were only three parts; the alto was added later. In Shape note gatherings, both men and women will sing the various lines, picking their favorite octave.
The tenor is written in treble clef and is sung an octave down (by the guys, anyway) and the bass is bass. No tenor clefs or such. Let me look and see if I have a 4 part "Star in the East"
If we can't find one, you could just have one woman do the tenor as written. The alto parts tend to be boring, filling in the third, as they are wont to do. Let me look.
Blessings,
one of the other Barbaras

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 10:33 PM

Thanks, Barbara. That's just how we're doing it, but I didn't realize I was singing the tenor part. We picked the key of Dm (rather than Am as written in the Southern Harmony) based on how low my husband could sing. He's normally a tenor, but I grabbed that part first, having found the song and learned that part previously. Then a soprano came along and had no trouble with the high part. The last guy to join our little ensemble ended up singing the tenor part with me but an octave lower, apparently just as the music was intended!

I'd be very interested to see a fourth part if you find one, but I'm wondering who would get "stuck" singing it. Probably that last guy to join us!

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 09:51 AM

I'm pretty sure I have a 4 part arrangement of this; I may have 2. I think one version was in American Vocalist. It was reprinted in An American Christmas Harp, compiled by Karen Willard. Follow that link for info on contacting the compiler. I'll try to remember to look when I get home.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 12:09 PM

Barbara Shaw - regarding the key, it's traditional to pick the key based on what the voices you have can handle. Being an entirely vocal tradition, usually you don't pick a "key", per se, since it matters not a whit what it might come out to on an instrument, but the song leader (or group, by consensus) finds the tonic fa or la that makes it work for all the parts.

The part of the NPR program that I found particularly interesting was the traditional singers' discussion of their feelings about folkies using their tradition -- and the folkies feelings about it as well. (By folkies, I mean those who've come to shape note singing other than thru their church or community's tradition. Many (like me) are not in it for the religion, but for the music, though many also find the spirit comes through somehow anyway, though not necessarily as intended.)

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 12:54 PM

I find it rather strange that several people have mentioned "Northfield" while "New Jerusalem" (Which is another Jeremiah Ingalls setting of the same Isaac Watts text)is conspicuous by it's absence. Perhaps singing it at Larry Gordon's speed has scared people off !

I once read that Ingalls originally composed "Northfield" while he and his friends were waiting rather a long time for their dinner and sang a parody of the Isaac Watts text "How long dear saviour, oh how long, wil our repast be delayed".

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 07:12 PM

Both Northfield (155) & New Jerusalem (299) are popular. Northfield was probably been metioned because it's often a 1st fuging tune for people. Northfield may also be done a bit more because it's easier & beginners like to lead it.

I checked the online minutes for 2001 & 2002. Northfield was reported 115 & 136 times; New Jerusalem 97 & 106. Anything @100 or higher is very popular.

"Will our repast be displayed" does not scan, but the basic story you heard is the commonly accepted one. It may have been "Will supper (dinner) be delayed"

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 21 Dec 03 - 12:36 PM

Update on "Star in the East." Burke tells me that s/he has a 4-part arrangement, which I hope to see sometime. Not in time for this morning, however, when we did it during the regular Sunday service at church!

Turns out our soprano came down with laryngitis, so the guy who was doubling my tenor part QUICKLY learned the soprano part and sang it an octave lower. That filled the three parts, with me singing tenor, one male voice singing bass and one male voice singing - what would you call soprano an octave lower?

It actually worked very well.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Dec 03 - 07:20 AM

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 22 Dec 03 - 05:56 PM

The top line is treble & is traditionally sung by both men & women, as is the tenor (lead). What you did was rearrange it into a more modern sort of STB with the Soprano having the lead. If you had taken the top line, you would have had a more traditional arrangment.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 04:57 PM

Barbara, C. H. Cayce's Good Old Songs (1914) has a 4-part setting with the air in the soprano line, at song #618, page 354.

T.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 05:40 PM

The inclusing of Sacred Harp music in Cold Mountain has resulted in a host of good newspaper articles & radio programs on Sacred Harp.

Today's Here & Now is especially good. (about 10 minutes)
Cleve Callison has posted a program first aired on NPR's Options series in 1979.

Jan. 5 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 4 the Chicago Tribune

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 04:35 PM

May have been noted in another thread, but a 1929 recording of "Cuba" and "Religion is a Fortune" by The Alabama Sacred Harp Singers is available at "Honking Duck."
Cuba Religion

Also at Honking Duck is the hymn, "We will gather with the Lord today," Sunday Evening at Seth Parker's, sung by Phillips Lord & Company, 1929

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 04:58 PM

TAPES AVAILABLE ON LOAN

If you have just been bitten by the shape-note bug and aren't able to lay out cash moolah for a CD-- Burke was kind enough to donate a set of shape-note materials to the Gospel Tape Lending Library project, and they are at my house ready to be lent out. There are several different tapes and one copy of the singer's book. Since she sent me the book, I believe an online edition has been located. So it would be cheapest to send out just the tapes, which are live-recorded sings from various places. PM me for details if you're interested.

~Susan

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 07:49 PM

W, anyone who uses the tapes really needs the book as well. There are lots of tunes that are not in the online 3rd edition. The book is heavy, so whoever borrows should plan on helping with the postage.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: wysiwyg
Date: 07 Sep 04 - 07:50 PM

OK. Thanks for the guidance.

~S~

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: pavane
Date: 08 Sep 04 - 05:41 AM

Two Sacred Harp songs were recorded by Young Tradition on their Galleries album, c1968

Wondrous Love
Idumea

I have no idea how their treatment compares with the 'standard' practice though.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 08 Sep 04 - 06:41 PM

I don't usually announce individual conventions because there are so many in different places. The one I'm going to this weekend is particularly good & worth getting to.

The United Convention begins its 2nd century on Saturday:
Formed in 1904 in Atlanta, GA, the convention returns to the Atlanta area and will be held:

September 11 and 12
9:30am-3:00pm (both days)

Ebenezer Primitive Baptist Church
Dunwoody, GA
(Ebenezer is located at the corner of Spalding Drive and Roberts Road, just off GA. 400. Exit at Northridge, cross over Northridge from exit ramp onto Roberts Road.)

More information HERE

Also this weekend is the 9th UK Convention in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire. Details here

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: open mike
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 12:57 AM

lots of links here..
http://fasola.org/
and here:
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/resource/

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 01:43 PM

Here are some down-loadable songs from Sacred Harp:
www.callistc/SacredHarpSingersintro.html

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 21 Nov 04 - 01:50 PM

Sorry about the above:
I got: callistc/sacredharpsingersintro.html
from Google.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Burke
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 10:49 AM

Here's the link Sheila was trying to give. The corrent domain was missing.

It was mentioned by WILLIAM HOGELAND in a Nov. 21 New York Times column:
Sacred Harp
At homepage.mac.com/callistc/SacredHarpSingersintro.html, you can download 22 free MP3 performances by some of the best singers of the roof-raising hymn style known as Sacred Harp, recorded in the 1970's in Bremen, Ga. (File names, worth browsing in themselves, include "145 Sweet Affliction" and "Arbacoochee.") Revivalists sometimes can't help crisping up the Sacred Harp sound, but these singers were full of unpretty enthusiasm. And the recordings let you hear the timbers groan and buzz.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Sheila
Date: 22 Nov 04 - 01:12 PM

Yes, Burke. Thanks for correcting me.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: open mike
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 02:06 PM

I posted in the Tim Eriksen thread about the shape note singers at the
newport folk festival in 2006. Tim_Eriksen_And_The_Shape_Note_Singers on mvy radio
check this out...from martha's vineyard radio archives.

the group singing starts about 6 minutes into the clip.
As Tim states, this is a 200 year old community singing tradition.
not usually seen as a performance, but as an group involvement
tradition.

Fa so la!

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Nov 22 - 02:16 PM

I don't read music very well. If I want to learn something from sheet music or a hymnal, I sometimes transcribe the parts to a MIDI that I can play as a ringtone on my phone. But that's tedious. I really have to want to learn a song to take the effort to learn four parts - or even one of the four parts.

So today I was looking at "Babylon Is Fallen," and I wondered if there might be a resource for the parts of Sacred Harp songs. Sure enough, Sacred Harp Bremen has transcribed all the songs in The Sacred Harp:

https://sacredharpbremen.org

The music has a strange, electronic sound. I wonder how it was reproduced. But it's a quick, easy way to see how a Sacred Harp hymn sounds, with all the parts separated for easy learning.

„The Sacred Harp“ ist der Name des Buches, aus dem wir singen. Vor ca. 160 Jahren wurde es das erste Mal publiziert, in einer Tradition, die noch weit älter ist. „Sacred Harp“ – die heilige Harfe – ist ein Begriff für die menschliche Stimme! Diese Art der Musik wird auch Shape Note Music genannt – Was das heißt, soll im Folgenden erklärt werden. Man nehme sich dazu am besten einen Song zur Hand, damit es verständlicher wird. Beim Zuhören fällt wahrscheinlich als erstes auf, dass wir alle keine ausgebildeten Sänger sind (auch wenn sich ab und an trainierte Stimmen zu uns verirren). Sacred Harp erinnert an die Tage, als Kirchenmusik noch von der Gemeinde gesungen wurde und nicht von einem Chor. Wir singen, weil es uns Spaß macht! Zwar sind auch Zuhörer willkommen, aber wir verstehen Sacred Harp nicht als eine Aufführung – jeder ist dazu eingeladen, mitzumachen.

"The Sacred Harp" is the name of the book we're singing from. It was first published around 160 years ago, in a tradition that is even older. "Sacred Harp" - the holy harp - is a term for the human voice! This type of music is also called shape note music – what that means is explained below. It is best to take a song to hand so that it becomes easier to understand. When listening, the first thing that probably strikes you is that none of us are trained singers (although trained voices occasionally stray to us). Sacred Harp is reminiscent of the days when sacred music was sung by the congregation rather than a choir. We sing because we enjoy it! While listeners are also welcome, we don't see Sacred Harp as a performance - everyone is invited to join in.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Guest Joan F
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 09:55 AM

Joe, that stuff from the Bremen group *is* electronically produced & is awful. They are not much better singing with people doing it. They sound very classical, straight-jacketed, formal, which is *not* Sacred Harp.

Traditional, that is people who grew up doing it, SH singers don't tend to record parts separately for educational purposes.

I can pick out my part, alto, from recordings but of course I already know the songs.

The best way to learn an SH song is singing it next to singers.

If you get a recording of "Babylon", for instance, recorded by people in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Texas, North Carolina in the 60s, no later than the 70s, so without a lot of Northern visitors,what you get from the composite song will be pretty close to the tenor part, 3rd line down from the top in the songbooks, which is the lead.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 10:46 AM

Many recordings on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sacred+Harp+Singing+top+tracks

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: cnd
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 10:54 AM

Joan, I understand where you're coming from, being a North Carolinian myself, but there is a certain sort of irony in your complaint since Sacred Harp is after all, a Northern import which took hold more prominently southward, much like football.

The electronic mixes are a good learning tool, but of course, are not beautiful.

I would agree that trying to be too prim and proper with sacred harp tends to ruin it. Whenever I listen to, for example, Last Words of Copernicus (thread), I always enjoy the "flyers" and gravelly voices which would never sit in a trained setting. I've heard sacred harp described as a patchwork quilt of voices, and to me it's most beautiful if they're not too neat and organized. It's good to have a little rough around the edges.

That being said, singing it is the best way to learn it, and if you haven't had formally learned the "dots" then sacred harp could be a good way to start. I won't belabor the point too much, but (depending on the system you learn) it's all made to be either 4 or 7 sounds based on the musical scale, with the shape of the note (hence, shape-note singing) determining the exact sound. Of course, you still have to learn the half, quarter, whole, and eighth notes, etc, but it's a simple primer.

I looked into learning it on my own, but to echo Joan, learned immensely more in about 30 minutes at a single Sacred Harp teaching session at Merlefest one year.

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Guest Joan F
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 07:30 PM

Just to clarify, what you learn in reading the shapes in shape-note singing is the *interval* between any two notes.

You start wherever you want (well, where the group wants) regardless of where the song is pitched in classical notation.

Then build your scale from that tonic note, which in a major mode song will be a "fa", a triangle on its side. Thats "do" in the doremi scale. But we're using the fasola scale.

"So", the next note, is oval, is a major 2nd, "re" in doremi.

"La", the next note, is a rectangle, a major 3rd from your tonic "fa", "mi" in dor we mi.

"Fa", the next note, triangle again, but written higher than the tonic "fa" starter note, is a major 4th, also "fa" in doremi.

"So", comes next, written higher than the 1st "so", oval again, major 5th from tonic.   Also "so" in doremi.


"La" next, higher than 1st "la", rectangle again, higher than 1st "la", is major 6th from tonic. Also "la" in doremi.

"Mi" next, is diamond-shaped. Equilateral triangles joined at their bases, points up, down, left & right. MAajor 7th from tonic. "Ti" in doremi.

The 8th note is "fa" again & completes the octave. A major 8th if you will.

If you know the distances between any 2 notes in a sung scale (that's solfege) you've got it.

Minor scale starts on the "la" below your tonic "fa", but when you get to the 6th scale degree, a "fa", you raise it a little.

You're in sorta-Dorian mode. Because most of the minor SH songs were taken from or at least inspired by Celtic-land songs.

Oh yeah, ignore all sharps & flats you see. The system wasn't built telling you you have to, but we do,

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Guest Joan F
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 07:38 PM

The Wright family gives tutorials, pointing at the shapes on whiteboard, which should be archived on NEFFA's site of on-line NEFFAs as "Singing School".

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 25 - 09:05 AM

Our Sacred Harp - April 2025
Heart and Soul - BBC World Service

Sacred Harp pioneer and former punk frontman, Tim Eriksen, takes us into the hair-raising sound of shape note singing – an American choral tradition experiencing a resurgence across the US and in Europe. All people and all faiths are welcome. As a new edition of the songbook approaches publication, Tim explores why this music is drawing more singers and how it’s managing to remain inclusive despite increasing political polarisation in the wider culture.

Sacred Harp is sung a-cappella in four-part harmony - a non-performative music where everyone takes a turn to lead and groups gather anywhere from churches to community centers and pubs. Songs were first published in a book of psalms in Georgia in 1844 and in 2025 a new edition will publish a record number of compositions submitted by sacred harp singers from all over the world.

For Tim Eriksen this is devotional music, but it will mean different things to different people - what’s special about it is the way it ‘transcends differences.’ Sociologist Laura Clawson tells us how the forbearers of the music stipulated that religion, and politics should not come into the ‘hollow square.’ Historically the Sacred Harp community has continued to sing and build bonds through chapters of political polarisation in the US. But how have recent political divides affected the community and how can it continue to remain an inclusive space?

Producer: Sarah Cuddon
A Falling Tree Production
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6vnp

FreddyHeadey

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: GUEST,Guest Joan F
Date: 18 Apr 25 - 04:41 PM

Its amazing that the BBC production has a date on it of
"25 April 25".

Time Travel!

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: BobL
Date: 19 Apr 25 - 03:39 PM

April 25 is the scheduled broadcast date. Evidently it's available online before then - and if pre-recorded, why not?

Subject: RE: Shape Note or Sacred Harp
From: Mo the caller
Date: 20 Apr 25 - 02:38 PM

Back at the start of this thread someone mentioned Whitby FF and West Gallery music.
In recent years (and probably this year too since there are enthusiastic Whitby regulars) there have been both West Gallery works-shops for singers and musicians, and Shape Note singing.