27 June 2008
Sacred Harp Singing
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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.
Transcript
Transcript
The original Sacred Harp of course is the human voice and this singing is strictly unaccompanied, no instruments, using a four-part style with treble, alto, tenor and bass sections seated facing each other in a square. This Sacred Harp tradition grew out of Primitive Baptist and Methodist churches in the American south, especially in Alabama and Georgia.
Compared to most choral music today Sacred Harp Singing sounds harsh, even eerie. And that's partly because the scales are often in a minor key and the pitch intervals they sing are fourths and fifths, intervals that just don't sound sweet. The subject matter's not sweet either - life as a hard pilgrimage, Christ's redeeming blood, and the fact of death.
Sometimes called 'shape note singing' because the musical notation uses special shapes to help the singers, who probably couldn't read music in the early days, identify the notes. These shapes - diamonds, squares, triangles and ovals - are also linked to a particular syllable - fa, sol, la and mi - to help the singers with their pitch. And almost every hymn begins with the singers singing out these syllables before they move into the actual words.
Further Information
Sacred Harp Singing
The Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association (SHMHA) sponsors this web site. SHMHA is a non-profit organization whose purpose is the preservation and perpetuation of Sacred Harp singing and its traditions. SHMHA's interests include Sacred Harp music, history, traditional singing practices, singing schools, singings, and singing conventions.
Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp Movie
The first feature documentary about Sacred Harp singing. You can view scenes from the film, including performances, and hear excerpts of the singing.
Sacred Harp Singing at the New Testament Baptist Church, Goshen, Indiana.
A YouTube video that shows the 'hollow square' arrangement of the singers.
Brunswick Sacred Harp Singers, Melbourne
A radio doumentary available on YouTube made originally for 3MBS-FM in Melbourne. This program highlights the Brunswick Sacred Harp Group. They meet on the first Sunday of every month from 4pm-6pm in the hall of Brunswick Uniting Church, Sydney Rd, Brunswick.
sacred_harp@yahoo.com.au
Music
CD title:
From the Valleys: The Best of Welsh Choirs
Track title:
Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night)
Artist: Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir
Composer: trad. arr. Eirian Owen/ Hughes
CD details: ABC Classics 480 0932
URL: http://www.fronchoir.com/
CD title:
Choral Spectacular
Track title:
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Artist: Paul McMahon, tenor/ Cantillation/ Brett Weymark
Composer: Hughes arr. Brett Weymark
CD details: ABC Classics 476 5706
URL: http://www.cantillation.com.au/
CD title:
From the Valleys: The Best of Welsh Choirs
Track title:
Ai am fod haul yn machlud? (Is it because the sun is setting?)
Artist: Llanelli Male Choir/ Clive Phillips, piano/D. Eifion Thomas
Composer: D. Iwan
CD details: ABC Classics 480 0932
URL: http://www.llanellimalechoir.co.uk/
CD title:
Cold Mountain
Track title:
Idumea
Artist: Sacred Harp Singers at Liberty Church
Composer: trad. arr. Tim Eriksen/ C. Wesley, A. Chapin
CD details: Sony 5149192000
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Mountain_%28soundtrack%29
CD title:
Southern Journey Vol. 4 - Brethren, We Meet Again
Track title:
I'm On My Journey Home/ Closing Prayer
Artist: Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
CD details: Rounder CD 1704
URL: http://www.rounder.com/series/lomax_alan/sjs.htm
Presenter
Geoff Wood
Producer
Geoff Wood
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