On Thursday I went to the National Sacred Harp Singing Convention. It was great! There's nothing like being surrounded by hundreds of people singing a cappella harmony as loudly as they can. (Contrary to this picture, it wasn't just old men!) The convention made the local news. Check out the photos on the left of the page too.
For more about Sacred Harp--including sound clips--check out the articles from NPR and Time. Or watch some of the videos on YouTube.
Sacred Harp music isn't all warm fuzzies. Check out the lyrics to one song we sang:
Youth, like the spring, will soon be gone,
By fleeting time or conquering death;
Your morning sun may set at noon,
And leave you ever in the dark.
Your sparkling eyes and blooming cheeks
Must wither like the blasted rose;
The coffin, earth, and winding sheet
Will soon your active limbs enclose,
Will soon your active limbs enclose.
Most of the songs weren't so gloomy, though. If you like music, you should come next year. It's free and very fun!
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I just had my "I learned something new today" moment: I had never heard of shape-notes until I read your post and linked to the Bham News article. Definitely something I'd like to learn more about -- thanks for sharing.
It's fun and definitely worth learning about! It's fairly easy too.
A church here on the mountain actually still sings from shaped-note hymnals--with seven shapes, not four like in Sacred Harp. I was in a bookstore in Boaz awhile back, and they were selling shaped-note hymnals for churches to use. Fascinating!
Ok. Several questions:
1. Why is it called Sacred Harp then? There's nothing about a harp there!
2. Are you in that picture?
3. Aren't you just singing the note written on the page? They just have shapes to them too? We had shaped notes at my church growing up (I thought all church hymnals were like that) and I just tried to hit the written note and not a shape (do, re, mi, etc.) Hmm... maybe I was doing it wrong!
That song is gloomy! Hopefully yall sang "Happy am I" after that!
1. The "sacred harp" actually means the human voice. (slightly weird I know)
2. Nope, I got it from the news site.
3. Watch some of the videos or listen to the sound clips if you get a chance...first you sing all the notes with their names (fa, so, la, mi). That's the warm-up. Then you sing the song with words. Apparently if you can't read music it's easier to learn using shapes than notes (??).
You had shape note hymnals at your church?? How cool (and old-fashioned)! Must have been a country church. But no, you didn't need to sing the names of the shapes. Some people just do that to learn how the songs go.
Wow that song is kind of... Ecclesiastes version 2!
I never have actually heard Sacred Harp singing live, just on tv or on the internet, but I like it. I was confused about why they sometimes sang fa, so, la, and why sometimes the words! Thanks for clearing that up.
Devil's Advocate here: Wouldn't it be just as easy to learn the notes if you're learning the notes that the shapes represent? Just saying...
ha,ha! :) Thanks for answering my questions!
Well, I'm not sure I know the technical answer, but with a four-shape system, you have to learn the names of only four shapes instead of the placement of seven notes all throughout the treble and bass clefs.
I also have a paper that says "With our shape-note system, there's no need to worry about different keys. The shapes ingeniously indicate the different pitches. The interval between, say, any fa and the la above it is always the same."
I'm no expert, but those are two reasons, maybe. (I'd just as soon sing the note names, or jump right into the song! It's hard to sing the shape names on a fast song.)