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The Sacred Harp (January 2010)

The sacred harp is not a particular piece of musical equipment, but a reference to the human voice, “the musical instrument you were given at birth”(http://fasola.org). A form of shape-note singing, sacred harp music employs a scale of four shaped notes: fa, sol, la, and mi. The page to the right provides an example of these notes, using a familiar tune to which you can practice. Click on it for a larger version. Click here for the original source at the Smithsonian.

The dispersed harmony associated with sacred harp singing requires that each voice—treble, alto, tenor, and bass—be given its own line. Typesetting these lines gives sacred harp books their distinctive rectangular shape. In practice, different voices in the music will cross one another, providing a lively chorus of ever-changing voices.

Sacred Harp Singings

Sacred harp singings, commonly called conventions, follow a familiar pattern:
singers sit facing one another in a square, arranged in sections by voice.
Both women and men sing tenor and treble parts, starting in different octaves.
The conductor leads from the center of the square, and all participants have a
chance to lead throughout the day. Customarily, the conductor directs the tempo
with one hand only. There are breaks for meals and fellowship, as most singings last a full day. This photo from the sacred harp singing held at Candler in February shows the singing group arranged in a square with the conductor in the middle. Click on the image to see an image from a Sacred Harp Sing at Cannon Chapel at Emory University.

Shape Note Books

Little, William, fl. 1798, comp. The easy instructor, or, A new method of teaching sacred harmony : containing I. The rudiments of music on an improved plan, II. A choice collection of psalm tunes and anthems. [ Albany : Websters & Skinners and Daniel Steele], 1798. [1798 LITT]

William Little and William Smith’s The easy instructor is often credited as the origin of the type of shaped note employed in The Sacred Harp and other tune books of its kind. Some early editions of the book note that Little and Smith borrowed this system from fellow Philadelphian John Connelly. With time, singing instructors brought the system from Pennsylvania into the Carolinas, Virginia, and further south. Click on the image for a larger version.

Walker, William, 1809-1875. The Southern harmony and musical companion : containing a choice collection of tunes, hymns, psalms, odes, and anthems; selected from the most eminent authors in the United States: ... also, an easy introduction to the grounds of music, the rudiments of music, and plain rules for beginners. [ Stereotype ed., corrected and improved with an appendix. Publication info: Philadelphia : Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co.], 1835. [1835 WALK]

The Southern Harmony is one of the most widely known sacred harp collections.
William Walker was the brother-in-law to B. F. White, compiler of the Sacred Harp. One story recounts that Walker and White worked on The Southern Harmony together, but when Walker headed north to find a publisher, he and the publishers entered into a contract that gave no credit to B. F. White and prevented him from receiving any money from the venture. B.F. White and William Walker never spoke again. White published The Sacred Harp nine years later. Click on the image to see a larger version.

White, B. F. and E. J. King. The Sacred harp : a collection of psalm and hymn tunes, odes, and anthems, selected from the most eminent authors, together with nearly one hundred pieces never before published ; suited to most metres, and well adapted to churches of every denomination, singing schools, and private societies, with plain rules for learners [ 4th ed., entirely remodelled: containing one hundred and thirty new and select pieces, expressly arranged and prepared for this book / compiled by a committee appointed by "The Southern Musical Convention." Philadelphia : S.C. Collins], c1870. [1870 SACR A]

The first edition of The Sacred Harp was published in 1844 and quickly adopted. This fourth edition of The Sacred Harp was the first major revision to the volume by B. F. White. He defends the continued use of the four shape-note system in the preface:

To those who are tenacious and scrupulous as to the different terms by which musical sounds should be expressed, allow us to say that we have carefully and earnestly studied the subject for forty-seven years, during the last twenty-seven years of which period we have been especially vigilant in seeking for musical terms more appropriate to the purpose than the four names used in this book; but candor compels us to acknowledge that our search has been unavailing. The scheme which our prolonged and laborious examination has inclined us to prefer to all others has had the sanction of the musical world for more than four hundred years; and we scarcely think that, on this subject, we can do better than abide by the advice—“Ask for the old paths, and walk therein.”
--B. F. White

Mason, Lowell, 1792-1872, and T. B. Mason. The sacred harp: or, Beauties of church music; a new collection of psalm and hymn tunes, anthems, sentences and chants ... [New ed., rev., with important improvements. Boston, Stereotyped for the publishers by Shepley and Wright], 1850. [1850 MASO A]

Lowell Mason, a leader in singing schools throughout the early 19th century and the creator of the first music curriculum for public schools in Boston, preferred the continental style of round notes and a seven-note system to the shaped notes of sacred harp style. Mason’s style came to dominate in New England and, eventually, in most American church music.

Original sacred harp : containing a superior collection of standard melodies of odes, anthems, and church music, and hymns of high repute : rudiments, retaining all valuable standard regulations, arr. with all modern up-to-date improvements. [Revised, corrected, and enlarged edition. Atlanta, Ga. : [s.n.]], 1911. [1911 ORIG]

In 1906, twenty-three sacred harp singers and writers, under the direction of Joe S. James, were appointed by the United Sacred Harp Musical Association and charged with revising the Sacred Harp. The revisions corresponded with an increased interest in sacred harp singing in Georgia and Alabama, and the publication of the book caused a dispute with the writers of the Cooper and White revisions over the rights to the music. In content, the James book included most of the content of the original Sacred Harp, adding songs that had been included at one time and later discarded.

Original sacred harp : Denson revision : the best collection of sacred songs, hymns, odes and anthems, ever offered the singing public for general use [music committee, T.J. Denson ... [et al.]. Haleyville, Ala. : Sacred Harp Pub. Co.], c1936. [1936 ORIG]

The Sacred Harp Publishing Company was organized by Thomas Denson in 1933, and purchased the rights to The Sacred Harp from the James family. Most of the editorial work on the revision was completed by Paine Denson. The Denson revision removed 176 songs and added 41 newer ones. The most major change included re-writing a rudiments section, although the songs themselves remained standard for the type.

The following items represent other forms of shape-note singing and significant volumes in the tradition.

Commuck, Thomas d. 1856? Indian melodies [New York: G. Lane & C.B. Tippett], c1845. [1845 COMM C]

Thomas Commuck was a member of the Narangansett tribe, described here as part of the Brothertown Indians, and published this work in 1845, only one year after the first edition of The Sacred Harp. His tunes have been given the names of Native American places, tribes, and people, in keeping with the geographic naming conventions of sacred harp music. In his preface to the work, Commuck described his reasons for undertaking this task: 1) to date, no Native American had attempted to do it; 2) he was of ill health and had a family of seven to support; 3) he was hopeful of making “a little money, whereby he may be enabled, by wise and prudent management, to provide for the comfortable subsistence of his household, and be enabled, from time to time, to cast in his mite to aid in relieving the wants and distresses of the poor and needy, and to spread the knowledge of the Redeemer and his kingdom throughout the world.” (p. vi)

Jackson, J. (Judge), 1883-1958. Uniform title: Sacred harp Title: The colored sacred harp [Ozark, Alabama : Author and publisher], c1934. [1934 JACK A]

Presenting hymns similar in style and tone to other sacred harp hymnals, The Colored Sacred Harp contains some tunes notable for their varying syncopation, such as the song pictured here, Florida Storm. Jackson modeled this tune book after the Cooper revision of The Sacred Harp.  The book did not catch on widely in the African American sacred harp tradition, which used the Cooper Sacred Harp book most heavily, but it did find some lasting recognition, particularly at the Jackson Memorial Sacred Harp Singing held at Union Grove Baptist Church, the church Judge Jackson attended, in Ozark, Alabama each April.

Carden, Allen D., comp. The Missouri harmony; or a collection of psalm and hymn tunes, and anthems, from eminent authors: with an introduction to the grounds and rudiments of music. To which is added a supplement, containing a number of admired tunes of the various metres, and several choice pieces, selected from some of the most approved collections of sacred music, by an amateur. [New York: G. Lane & C.B. Tippett], c1838. [1838 CARD]

The Missouri Harmony went through at least 23 printings between 1820 and 1857, making it an incredibly popular tune book throughout the expanding Midwestern territory from St. Louis into Wisconsin and southward into Tennessee. In time, tunes were replaced in popular song by Victorian round-note melodies. The Missouri Harmony was reproduced in 2005 by the Missouri Historical Society Press [2005 MISS].

Funk, Joseph, 1777-1862, comp. Harmonia sacra, being a compilation of genuine church music. Comprising a great variety of metres, all harmonized for three voices, together with a copious explication of the principles of vocal music. Exemplified and illustrated with tables in a plain and comprehensive manner. By Joseph Funk and Sons ... Eleventh edition. Singer's Glen, Rockingham Co., Va., Joseph Funk's Sons; Bremen, Ohio, H.B. Brenneman, 1866. [1866 FUNK]

The Harmonia Sacra reflects a departure from Funk’s 1832 volume, A Compilation of Genuine Church Music, which used the four-shape notation system common to works like The Sacred Harp and the Southern Harmony. Instead of that system, beginning in 1851 the Harmonia Sacra employed a seven-note system. The volume was written to serve the musical needs of Mennonites in the Shenandoah Valley.

Davisson, Ananias, 1780-1857. Kentucky harmony, or a choice collection of psalm tunes, hymns, and anthems . In three parts. [Minneapolis : Augsburg Pub. House] c1976,1816. Facsimile of the first edition, with introduction by Irving Lowens. General note: Raymond C. Hamrick Hymnal Collection, 2005--Pitts Theology Library. [1976 DAVI]

First published in 1816, the Kentucky Harmony employs no sharps and flats and frequently misplaces notes on the wrong staff, indicating Davisson’s self-taught music composition skills. Davisson focused on creating four-part harmonizations, adding pieces where earlier editions of a song had used only two or three parts. In the same year, Joseph Funk brought out a German-language songbook, Die allgemein nützliche Choral-Music, that contained two songs attributed to “der Kentuckie Harmonie,” testifying to the quick popularity many of Davisson’s tunes garnered.

The Norumbega harmony : historic and contemporary hymn tunes and anthems from the New England singing school tradition editorial committee: Stephen A. Marini ... [et al.] ; foreword by Nym Cooke ; introduction and tune commentaries by Stephen A. Marini. [Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi], 2003. [2003 NORU]

The Norumbega Harmony combines 106 sacred harp tunes from early New England with 30 contemporary compositions. Consulting the first editions of hymns selected, compilers did their best to spread the New England history of sacred harp singing.

The community of the sacred harp
The sacred harp community is valued as much as the singing by many regular attendees. Numerous writers have described how they’ve met friends and spouses and connected with older and younger family members over the course of sacred harp singing days and conventions. The items below illustrate some of these aspects of this singing community.

Newsletters from sacred harp singers around the country attest to the tradition’s growing popularity outside of the Southeastern United States. In this article published in the Chicago Sacred Harp Newsletter, a sacred harp singer from Boston describes the origin of the Norumbega Harmony singing group and dismisses the idea that the group is a performance group rather than a regular sacred harp community.

Chicago Sacred Harp Newsletter
[Box 6, Folder 1, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Hugh McGraw became an influential promoter of Sacred Harp singing. In the letter here, he encourages singers to turn out for a recording of their music. McGraw also served as President of the National Sacred Harp Foundation, dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the singing style.

[Box 3, Folder 7, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

These letters with the Head of the Archive of Folk Song at the Library of Congress illustrate Raymond Hamrick’s ongoing involvement with learning and preserving the history of sacred harp music. He contributed a tape of sacred harp singing in Georgia to the archives and retrieved articles that informed his and his wife’s work on the history of sacred harp singing.

Raymond Hamrick's Articles
The following articles about the history of shape-notes and the role of the pitcher are from the pen of Raymond C. Hamrick, a lifelong resident of Macon, Georgia, and a longtime sacred harp singer and composer. In “The curious history of shape notes,” Hamrick describes the state of musical knowledge that readily adopted a system of associating a particular shape with a particular sound. In “The pitcher’s role in sacred harp music,” he discusses the method by which four prominent pitchers determine the tone at which a song should be sung, commonly a tone or a tone and a half lower than the pitch at which the song is written.

Hamrick, Raymond C. “The curious history of shape-notes.” Unpublished article, 1968 (Published in the National Sacred Harp Newsletter in 1978).
[Box 5, Folder 1, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Hamrick, Raymond C. “The pitcher’s role in sacred harp music”, Notes from the Sacred Harp 1(2): 1, 4-7.
[Box 5, Folder 1, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Hamrick, Raymond C. “Sojourn in the South—Billings Among the Shape-Noters.” Unpublished article, n.d.
[Box 5, Folder 1, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Raymond Hamrick's letters
Raymond Hamrick became recognized as a knowledgeable voice in the sacred harp community, as these letters illustrate. In 1950, Pullen wrote, “It is indeed a pleasure to find one like you, a real Southerner, so deeply interested in his own native music. It is usually the Northerner who sees beauty in it and the Southerner who despises it.” In this 1963 letter to Linda Traywick, Hamrick notes that while raised in the fa-sol-la tradition, he became personally involved in 1947 after returning from serving in World War II and attending a singing near his home. He also expresses appreciation for the recent interest in sacred harp singing, noting, “We have survived indifference and scorn for a hundred and fifty years and we feel that the recognition and respect that is now being accorded these old songs is but a long-overdue tribute to those sturdy musical pioneers of our country.” In the 1967 letter from A. Marcus Cagle, Hamrick is asked to identify some traits of a piece of music, also shedding light on ongoing discussions in the sacred harp community about how tunes should be sung.

George Pullen Jackson, letter to Raymond C. Hamrick, October 1950.
[Box 3, Folder 3, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Raymond C. Hamrick, letter to Linda Traywick, May 17, 1963.
[Box 1, Folder 3, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

A. Marcus Cagle, letter to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond C. Hamrick, February 13, 1967.
[Box 1, Folder 11, Raymond Hamrick Papers, MSS 323,
Archives and Manuscripts Department, Pitts Theology Library]

Recent sacred harp publications
The tradition of sacred harp composition and singing continues much as it always has, with new editions of the work including newly composed hymns along with a selection of favorite songs. The items below illustrate this ongoing work.

The Sacred harper's companion : a collection of hymns and anthems in traditional shape note style / by contemporary composers ; edited by Glen Wright and Susan Mampre. 1st ed. [ Belmont, MA (4 Lewis Rd., Belmont 02178) : Musica], c1993. [1993 SACR]

Hamrick, C. Raymond. The Georgian Harmony : a collection of hymns and fuging tunes in the shape-note tradition [Georgia : Raymond C. Hamrick, c2008] [2008 HAMR]

The sacred harp: a collection of tunes, odes, hymns and anthems, fourth edition with supplement. Together with over one hundred pieces never before used for this work / Arranged and compiled by J. L. White and others. [ 2007 Edition Atlanta, Ga.? : J.L. White], 2007. [2007 SACR A]