Sacred Harp: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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.

The music and its notation

The earliest roots of Sacred Harp singing are found in the American colonial era. At that time, singing schools were created to provide instruction in choral singing, especially for the use of churches. In 1801, a book called The Easy Instructor¹ 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. For example, the C major scale would be notated and sung as follows:

The shapes and notes designate degrees of the scale, not particular pitches. Thus for a song in the key of C, "fa" designates C and F; for a song in G, "fa" designates G and C, and so on.

From the beginning, there have been rival shape systems. Andrew Law (1749-1821) introduced a shape note system in his The Musical Primer of 1803. Although this book came out two years later than Smith and Little's book, Law claimed earlier invention of shape notes. In his system, a square indicated fa, a circle sol, a triangle la and a diamond, mi. Law used the shaped notes without a musical staff. It was the Smith and Little shapes that ultimately prevailed in the Sacred Harp tradition.

Shape notes were abandoned in the northeastern U.S. only shortly after their invention, as the result of a so-called "better music" movement spearheaded by Lowell Mason. But the shapes became popular in the South, where they were specifically adapted for the dissemination of sacred music in books such as William Walker's Southern Harmony, published in 1835. Sacred Harp singing as such came into being following the publication of Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King's The Sacred Harp in 1844. Ultimately, The Sacred Harp, now distributed in several different versions, came to be the shapenote tradition with the largest number of participants.

The Sacred Harp 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.

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, traditionally called "dinner on the grounds."

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 oldest Sacred Harp "Convention" was the Southern Musical Convention, organized in Upson County, Georgia in 1845. The two oldest surviving Sacred Harp singing conventions are the Chattahoochee Musical Convention (organized in Coweta County, Georgia in 1852), and the East Texas Sacred Harp Convention (organized as the East Texas Musical Convention in Smith County, Texas in 1855).

Sacred Harp singers view their tradition as a participatory, not a passive one. Those who gather for a singing sing for themselves and for each other, and not for an audience. This can be seen in several aspects of the tradition.

First, the seating arrangement (four parts in a square, facing each other) is clearly intended for the singers, not for external listeners. Non-singers are always welcome to attend a singing, but typically they sit among the singers in the back rows of the tenor section, rather than in any particular designated audience location.

The leader, of course, is equidistant from all sections and thus in principle hears the best sound. The often intense sonic experience of standing in the center of the square is indeed considered one of the perquisites of leading, and sometimes a guest will be invited to stand next to the leader to share this experience.

The music itself is also clearly meant to be participatory. Most forms of choral composition place the melody on the top (treble) line, where it can be best heard by an audience, with the other parts written so as not to obscure the melody. In contrast, Sacred Harp composers have aimed to make each musical part singable and interesting in its own right, thus giving every singer in the group an absorbing task. For this reason, "bringing out the melody" is not a high priority in Sacred Harp composition, and indeed it is customary to assign the melody not to the trebles, but to the tenors. Fuging tunes, in which each section gets its moment to shine, also illustrate the importance in Sacred Harp of maintaining the independence of each vocal part.

The music used in Sacred Harp singing is eclectic. Most of the songs can be assigned to one of four historical layers.

• The oldest layer comes from New England around the time of the Revolutionary War. It represents a rendition in shape notes of the work of outstanding early American composers such as William Billings and Daniel Read, who worked as itinerant singing masters. This material is rich in fuguing tunes, and includes a number of extensive "anthems", which are longer and harder to sing than most other shape note works.

• A second layer comes from about 1830, following the migration of the shape note tradition to the rural South. This layer has a certain resemblance to Appalachian folk music, and some of these songs are in fact old secular folk melodies, harmonized in parts and given religious lyrics. As quasi-folk music, the songs of this layer often emphasize the notes of the pentatonic scale. Typically they employ stark, vivid harmonies based on open fifths.

The sound of this musical layer, as well as to some extent The Sacred Harp in general, can be observed by comparing versions of the well-known hymn "Amazing Grace", which is familiar to many Americans in a form such as the following:

A familiar harmonization of "Amazing Grace". Click to hear piano reduction (Ogg format, 234K)

In The Sacred Harp (1991 edition), "Amazing Grace" is harmonized quite differently:

"Amazing Grace" as it appears in The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition. Click to hear piano reduction (Ogg format, 225K)

Many listeners feel that while the Sacred Harp version is perhaps not as pretty as the one given above, it has more character. (Note: the title "New Britain" is the name of the tune used; like many Sacred Harp titles it comes from a place name.)

• A third layer of Sacred Harp music is from the mid nineteenth century and represents the popular sensibility of that era. A number of these mid-century works have an almost primal simplicity--the harmony is essentially a single extended major chord, and the parts a decoration in slow tempo of that chord.

• Lastly, in the twentieth century, many participants in the tradition took up composition for themselves, and about a sixth of The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition is taken up with these compositions, dating to as recently as 1990. Twentieth-century Sacred Harp composers have generally attempted to preserve the essentials of the tradition, by adopting for their compositions the style of one of the earlier three periods. They also tend to recycle lyrics from earlier Sacred Harp songs (or from their sources, such as the work of the 18th century hymnodist Isaac Watts). A number of these modern compositions have become favorites of the singing community, and it is anticipated that future, 21st-century editions of The Sacred Harp will also include new songs.

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.

The first book that bore the title The Sacred Harp 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 B. F. White and E. J. King and printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1844. The Sacred Harp of White and King is the book that grew into the tradition that we know today, and it is this book (in one of several current editions; see below) that people speak of when they speak of singing Sacred Harp.

Early history

Benjamin Franklin White (1800-1879), of Harris County, Georgia, and Elisha J. King (ca. 1821-1844), of Talbot County, Georgia, collaborated to compile, transcribe, and compose tunes, and publish a book of over 250 songs. 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 songbook. 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. The 1869 edition continued in use for several decades.

Origin of the modern editions

The turn of the twentieth century saw something of a crisis in Sacred Harp singing, documented by the Sacred Harp historian Buell E. Cobb (see reference below). B. F. White had died in 1879 before completing a fourth revision, and copies of his book gradually became hard to obtain. Without a book to sing from, the Sacred Harp tradition clearly would have died out. Moreover, the last years of the 19th century had seen changes in the public's musical tastes. Notably, gospel music - syncopated and chromatic, often with piano accompaniment - had become popular, along with a number of church hymns of the "mainstream" variety, such as "Rock of Ages." It was an important and open question how far any new Sacred Harp edition should go in responding to these changes.

The first new Sacred Harp to appear at this time was the work of William M. Cooper, of Dothan, Alabama, who in 1902 prepared a revision that, while retaining most of the old songs, also went some way towards incorporating contemporary music styles into the Sacred Harp. Cooper made some other changes as well, retitling some songs, transposing some into new keys, and writing new alto parts for songs that originally just had three vocal lines. The Cooper revision was widely adopted in many areas of the South, such as Florida, southern Alabama, and Texas, where it has continued as the predominant Sacred Harp book to this day. The "Cooper book," as it is often called, was revised by Cooper himself in 1907 and 1909; and since then has been supervised by an editorial committee which produced new editions in 1927, 1950, 1960, 1992, and 2000.

In the original core geographic area of Sacred Harp singing, northern Alabama and Georgia, the singers did not in general take to the Cooper book, as they felt it deviated too far from the original tradition. Obtaining a new book for these singers was made more difficult by the fact that B. F. White's son James L. White, who would have been the natural choice to prepare a new edition, was himself a non-traditionalist. Ultimately, a committee headed by Joe S. James produced a new edition (1911) that largely satisfied the wishes of this community of singers. Later revisions of this edition went further in the direction of traditionalism; these were carried out in 1936 by a committee under the leadership of the brothers Seaborn and Thomas Denson, both influential singing school teachers. Later editorial committees produced further revisions of their work (still often called the "Denson book") in 1960, 1967, 1971, and 1991.

Even the traditionalist James and Denson books followed Cooper in one important respect: virtually every song that had originally been written in three parts (mostly from the early 19th century, the second of the four "layers" mentioned above) was given a newly composed fourth part for the alto singers. The alto parts are felt by some to have imposed an esthetic cost, since the former stark open harmonies of the three-part songs now have a more filled-in harmony that emphasizes the musical third (almost inevitably, as the third is often the only note in the musical texture not already taken by one of the other three parts).² Yet there has been a compensating gain, since now every side of the square has its own part to sing.

Both of the primary Sacred Harp books, Cooper and Denson, have incorporated new songs in their various 20th-century editions, generally songs that (as noted above) preserve the general style of the tradition.

Two other books are currently used by Sacred Harp singers. A few singers in north Georgia employ the "White book," an expanded version of the 1869 B. F. White edition edited by J. L. White. African-American Sacred Harp singers, although primarily users of the Cooper book, also make use of a supplementary volume, The Colored Sacred Harp, produced by Judge Jackson (1883-1958) in 1934 and later revised in two subsequent editions. In his book, Judge Jackson and The Colored Sacred Harp, Joe Dan Boyd has identified four regions of Sacred Harp singing among African-Americans - eastern Texas (Cooper book), northern Mississippi (Denson book), south Alabama and Florida (Cooper book), and New Jersey (Cooper book). The Colored Sacred Harp is limited to the New Jersey and south Alabama-Florida groups. Sacred Harp was "exported" from south Alabama to New Jersey. It appears to have died out among the African-Americans in eastern Texas.

In summary, three revisions of and one companion book to The Sacred Harp are currently in use in Sacred Harp singing:

• The B. F. White Sacred Harp, Revised Cooper Edition (2000). Samson, AL: The Sacred Harp Book Company.
• The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition (the "Denson book"). Carrollton, GA: Sacred Harp Publishing Company.
• The Sacred Harp, J. L. White Fourth Edition, with Supplement (the "White book"). Atlanta, GA: J. L. White. Released 1911; out of print, but currently being republished.
• The Colored Sacred Harp. Ozark, AL: Judge Jackson. [3rd revised edition (1992) includes rudiments by H. J. Jackson (son of J. Jackson) and an autobiography of Judge Jackson].

The Denson book contains an extensive introduction that explains how to sing Sacred Harp music and how to hold a singing, and the other books include similar sections.

Books

• The Chattahoochee Musical Convention, 1852-2002: A Sacred Harp Historical Sourcebook, Kiri Miller, editor, 2002, The Sacred Harp Museum. ISBN 1887617132
• The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music, by Buell E. Cobb, Jr. 2001, University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0820323713
• White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, by George Pullen Jackson, 1933, University of North Carolina Press. ASIN 0486214257
• Judge Jackson and The Colored Sacred Harp, by Joe Dan Boyd, 2002, Alabama Folklife Association. ISBN 0967267250

See also the bibliographic entries under Shape note.

• 1. Dick Hulan writes, "My copy of William Smith's Easy Instructor, Part II (1803) attributes the invention [of shape notes] to 'J. Conly of Philadelphia'." And according to David Warren Steel, in John Wyeth and the Development of Southern Folk Hymnody, "This notation was invented by Philadelphia merchant John Connelly, who on 10 March 1798 signed over his rights to the system to Little and Smith." Andrew Law also laid claim to the invention of the shape note system.
• 2. In his "The Alto Parts in the 'True Dispersed Harmony' of The Sacred Harp Revisions", Wallace McKenzie argues that the added altos of the James and especially the Cooper books follow principles of 'true dispersed harmony' and do not greatly change the texture of the music. (The Musical Quaterly, 1989, 73:153-171)