"Singing In the Park"
Photo by John Lamb
Over the years several hundred different tune books were published, but only a few are sung from actively today. These books, along with the Sacred Harp, use Shape Notes -- an early American form of musical notation designed to facilitate sight reading by non-musicians. Using ordinary staff lines, the notes have shaped shaped heads that indicate their position in the scale. It features three or four part harmony, and is sung by singers arranged (by parts) facing an open or "hollow square."
My feature story about Sacred Harp Singing
My Recordings of Shapenote Singing
Warren Steel's Shapenote Resources Page
Maps to Sacred Harp Singings Please note this is a LARGE & GRAPHICAL website.
Harpeth Valley Sacred Harp Singers
Once you have purchased a book, you may want to attend a singing school, where beginners (and experienced singers) work on building their skills. There is usually no cost to attend singings. Ocassionally there may be a small fee to attend a singing school depending on the teacher and location. Your only cost will be your travel expenses as you become addicted and travel to more and more singings, and "have" to buy more books and recordings!
Area Sacred Harp singers will sing several songs prior to the showing to give those in attendance the opportunity to experience the music first hand.
Seven years in the making by filmmakers Matt and Erica Hinton, “Awake, My Soul” explores the oldest surviving American music, popularized in recent hit films such as “Cold Mountain” and “Gangs of New York.”
“This film takes the viewer into the rural churches and halls where Sacred Harp singing happens,” says Daryl Chesney, event organizer. “It introduces us to people for whom Sacred Harp singing is as much a part of life as breathing.”
Sacred Harp singing is one of several surviving shapenote singing traditions that grew out of efforts in the late 1700s to improve singing in churches by the teaching of music through singing schools. These singing schools were taught by itinerant singing school masters. As their efforts continued, musical notation bearing geometric shapes was introduced. This notation graphically conveys the position of a note in the scale, making sight reading easier for those learning to sing. Over the years, this style of singing was abandoned in many places, but continued throughout the South. After its "discovery" by music scholars in the first half of the 20th Century, interest in it has spread throughout the United States.
For more information about “Awake, My Soul” visit:
For more information about Sacred Harp Singing visit: www.fasola.org
Similar sessions are planned for Saturday, March 31; and Saturday, April 28 [the day before the 5th Sunday singing at Liberty/Henagar]. We plan to meet from 1-4 on those days as well. If you have extra books, please bring those. For more information about these Sacred Harp singing events in Chattanooga, send mail to Linda Sides, the organizer of the Chattanooga group.
For more information about Sacred Harp singing in Chattanooga, send mail to Linda Sides, the organizer of the Chattanooga group. For information about singings in Cleveleand, send mail to Daryl Chesney the organizer of the Cleveland group.
If you know of a resource that should be included on this page, or have suggestions or comments, send mail to John Lamb
Other Singings in the South and Elsewhere
Singings from the 1991 "Denson Edition" of the Sacred Harp
Singings from the "Cooper Edition " of the Sacred Harp
Singings from The Harmonia Sacra
Singings from The Christian Harmony
Singings from The New Harp of Columbia
