Past Programs
Protestant - 2008
Sacred Harp Singing
27/06/2008
A celebration of the voice this week with choirs great and small, from the valleys of Wales to the green hills of Alabama where the tradition of Sacred Harp Singing lives on. Sometimes called 'shape note singing' because the musical notation uses special shapes to help the singers, Sacred Harp Singing is a Protestant style of four-part singing that takes its name from a famous hymn book published in America in 1844 called The Sacred Harp. The sound is raw and intense and after decades in decline has undergone a revival in the United States, and around the world, partly due to the success of the soundtrack to the film, Cold Mountain, which featured Sacred Harp Singing.
