Stormy Banks and Sweet Rivers: A Sacred Harp Geography

On a warm Saturday in early summer, a crowd gathers at a white-washed church in rural Alabama. As they begin to sing, a sound rises that is overwhelming in volume and intensity. The lyrics speak of the transience of life on earth and express a longing for a more joyous existence in the next world. The music has a haunting quality, with plaintive tones and a sound that to the uninitiated might seem more at home in medieval or renaissance Europe than in the U.S. South. The crowd will sing from 9:30 in the morning until about three in the afternoon, and they will use only one songbook – The Sacred Harp.

The name of this oblong songbook has come to designate the form of a cappella choral music it preserves. Sacred Harp music has its beginnings in New England music reforms. Puritans neglected sacred music, and by the late seventeenth century, many church-goers were weary of antiquated psalmody and a limited number of tunes. Singing schools emerged to teach lay-persons the basics of reading and performing music. These schools operated independently of any congregation or denomination and were run by itinerant teachers who were often self-taught in music (Pen 212). With a revived interest in church music, composers introduced new tunes that ignored European "scientific" musical theory and broke many of the rules of Western musical composition. One of the most famous of these singing masters was William Billings (1746-1800), a Boston tanner who composed some of the earliest American music.

In the early to mid-nineteenth century, musicians in northeast urban centers became enamored of European styles of composition and came to regard the kind of music taught in the singing schools as crude. Musicians such as Lowell Mason (1792-1872) began an ardent campaign against the singing schools and the kind of music they promoted. Mason and the "better music" advocates helped insure that European standards would be the basis of the musical curriculum in public schools.

The singing school migrated south and west. Although critics pursued the tradition (Lowell Mason's brother, Timothy, moved to Cincinnati (Bealle, 29)), it put down firm roots in regions of the South. As immigrants moved southward from Pennsylvania into Virginia and the Carolinas, singing masters and their singing schools followed. The Shenandoah Valley proved fertile ground. (Cobb 1989, 66). Singing schools and gatherings provided a social institution much appreciated by rural farmers. The schools' success increased the demand for tune books.

Sometime around 1798, William Little and William Smith of Philadelphia compiled The Easy Instructor, likely published in Albany, New York (for problems of dating and place of publication, see Metcalf, 89-97; Lowens and Britton, 115-37; Bealle 269, n. 1). This compilation of primarily American music incorporated shape-notes, or patent-notes, for the first time. To make sight-reading easier, a unique shape was assigned to each of the four syllables (fa, sol, la, and mi) commonly used to represent the seven-note scale (fa, sol, la, fa, so, la, mi). This system became popular for use both in the singing schools and in songbooks. Although numerous books were printed with shape notes, none have had the staying power of The Sacred Harp.

"Northfield". The Wootten Family sings "Northfield." This is a fuging tune, a style once widely popular among American composers but frowned upon by the "better music" movement.

Although originally published in Philadelphia in 1844, The Sacred Harp was compiled and edited by Benjamin Franklin White and E. J. King (ca. 1821-1844) in Hamilton, Georgia. It thrived especially around the foothills of the Appalachians that stretch into northern Georgia and Alabama, and accrued strong followings in parts of northern Mississippi and some locales of Tennessee as well. George Pullen Jackson speculated in 1944 that "aside from the Holy Bible, the book found oftenest in the homes of rural southern people is without doubt the big oblong volume of song called The Sacred Harp" (Jackson 1944, 7). Although other song books continued to be printed using shape-notes, most eventually adopted the seven-shape system (representing the seven syllables do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti), and after the mid-nineteenth century, the tunes in these books came to be increasingly influenced by gospel styles.

The arrangement of space within the church expresses the emphasis that singers place on participation. In a typical Protestant church, row after row of pews face a pulpit or lectern, and the choir faces the congregation. For a Sacred Harp singing, however, the seating resists any suggestion that a divide might exist between "performer" and "audience." The people sit in four sections. Altos face tenors, and trebles face basses. This arrangement of singers forms a hollow square in the center. In this square stands a leader. Throughout the day, participants will take turns leading one or two songs (see: "Leading Sacred Harp Music"). Anyone, young or old, male or female, with basic competence in the music is encouraged to take a turn leading. Time permitting, everyone who wants to lead will get a chance.

Leading a song means far more to Sacred Harp singers than the opportunity to select a favorite piece of music. Standing in the hollow square, the leader is at the center of the space where all the sound converges. Singers consistently emphasize that the experience of the music is most powerful from the hollow square.

Reba Dell Windom leads "Schenectady," at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church, Bremen, GA, June 2004. Image courtesy of Matt and Erica Hinton.

The rotation of song leaders throughout the day suggests the democratic impulses at the heart of the tradition. Sacred Harp music caught on most strongly in areas inhabited by yeoman farmers rather than those places in the South dominated by large plantations. The minutes kept by the early singing conventions reveal attention to democratic process (Cobb 1989, 130-32). The music is sung a cappella; the "Sacred Harp" refers to the human voice raised in song. Since everyone has this sacred harp, participation is open to all. The songs themselves have deep roots among the folk. Many of the tunes and some of the lyrics that made it into The Sacred Harp were the compositions of unschooled farmers who sang the music, and today, some devotees continue to compose using original principles and practices. Other songs derive from the improvised group singings that occurred at camp meetings (Cobb 1989, 79-83; Pen 217).

Although the lyrics of many songs come from the pens of Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, and John Newton, tunes may be the work of a farmer recalling fiddle melodies (Pen 217; Cobb 1989, 73-74; for more detail on this topic, see Horn). Ultimately, tracing the authorship of songs in The Sacred Harp is tricky business, since many of the ascriptions are inaccurate. A composer might avoid his or her own name out of modesty and choose to dedicate the song to another by using the other person’s name.

Sacred Harp singers use a narrow range of dynamics — every song should be loud. And with their unique performance practices comes a distinct taste in performance spaces. Singers prefer the small, wooden, country churches similar to those that would have nourished this music in its infancy. The walls are unadorned, surfaces should be hard, and the floors should not be carpeted. A square building with relatively low ceilings serves the acoustical tastes of these singers better than vaulted ceilings (Pen 226). Concert halls engineered for modern tastes may be used at times or for special performances, but they are not preferred.

Sacred Harp singers do not spend the entire day inside the confines of the church. Around midday they break for dinner on the grounds. Spread over several tables, a sumptuous potluck meal, usually eaten outside, awaits the singers. Mississippi artist Ethel Mohamed vividly captured images of activities both inside and outside the church building through her embroidery and reminiscences.

When a singing is held at a rural church, the cemetery on the church grounds often becomes another focal space, especially for singers with local ties. Singings often coincide with the homecoming of a congregation or family, when the widely dispersed return to renew acquaintances and pay tribute to ancestors by decorating their graves (see: "Sacred Harp Singings"). Just before or after dinner on the grounds, singings often feature a "memorial lesson," during which songs are dedicated to the memories of the singers who have died in the last year. Some annual singings are dedicated to deceased stalwarts of the tradition.

The vast majority of Sacred Harp songs have spiritual themes, and for most participants, singings are a form of worship. However, The Sacred Harp occupies an ambivalent space in the religious world. By the express intention of the original compiler, B. F. White, the songs are meant to be compatible with any denomination, and statements of singing conventions echo this sentiment (Cobb 130). The singing schools exist as a social and religious institution separate from any formal denominational support. Singings frequently occur on Saturdays, or take advantage of a church building's being empty on Sunday if its part-time minister serves another congregation.

Despite the value placed on continuity with "the old paths," the living Sacred Harp boasts local variety. Although the Denson revision of The Sacred Harp is by far the most popular, two other revisions maintain followings, especially where the shape-note tradition was somewhat late spreading. The Cooper book is used especially in western Florida and the lower regions of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as in parts of Texas. The White book is used in some singings in east Atlanta and northwest Georgia (Cobb 1989, 6-7).

The Southern Harmony published in 1835 by William Walker is another four-shape book still in use (for an online edition, see: The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion). It has served as the songbook for only one long-standing annual singing held in Benton, Kentucky, but it has recently been picked up at some new singings. In 1866, Walker published a seven-shape songbook entitled Christian Harmony. This book included recent hymns and reflected the influence of gospel-style music. It remains the staple of numerous singings in North Carolina, Mississippi, and Alabama (see: The Christian Harmony Singings). Some Sacred Harp singers will include a song or two from the Christian Harmony at their own singings. Christian Harmony is one of several seven-shape books that remain in use.

Is Sacred Harp a folk tradition? On the one hand, it exists in a published form. The music and words are preserved in a songbook. However, many of the tunes collected in The Sacred Harp derive from folk melodies passed down aurally before being written (cf. Cobb 1989, 73-74). Varieties of styles and the differences from region to region reflect the importance of local preferences. For example, Black Sacred Harp singers have developed styles so unique that, according to Cobb, the prospects for "consolidation" with white singers are slim (Cobb 1989, 6). Even among white singers united by the use of the Denson book, stylistic differences exist depending upon location (on the question of Sacred Harp as a folk tradition, see especially Bealle).

For all of their evocation of tradition, place, family, friends, and good food, Sacred Harp singers face the transience of earthly life without illusions:

Song after song in The Sacred Harp expresses longing for the next life, frequently designated "Canaan" and celebrated as a heavenly promised land. Rooted in Biblical descriptions, the geography of Canaan is depicted as a peaceful land of lush vegetation and gentle, flowing rivers where families and friends reunite permanently and all sorrows cease. By contrast, this present life is a tangled wilderness or the stormy banks of the Jordan River, which one must cross:

The pastoral imagery of these songs may further explain why they have maintained loyalty from rural people during generations of migration and urbanization.

Sacred Harp joins sacred sound with sacred space in a sociable event. From the printed pages of The Sacred Harp, musical space is negotiated by means of relative pitch to accommodate the range of the day's singers. Songs typically provide each part (bass, tenor, alto, treble) with a good musical line to sing. The physical space of Sacred Harp singing is arranged so that the center of worship is where all voices converge. The hollow square orients this space; its center is where the music is experienced in the balance of voices and at its loudest. Entrance into this inner sanctuary requires no ordination, nor are there restrictions based on age, race, or gender in current practice. Adherence to specific creeds or the lack of formal profession of Christian faith does not restrict access. The sacred does not inhere in an altar, a sacrament, or a church building. The priority is that the room be "live" and conducive to the sound. Where they gather, the singers create the space.

The uniqueness of Sacred Harp space evokes its origins in colonial American singing schools which sought to broaden musical education. By mid-nineteenth century, shape note music had lost out in northern urban areas to more modern styles. The 1844 publication of The Sacred Harp signified the successful migration of the music and the singing school to white yeoman-farming areas in several southern regions. Although early on the leading of songs tended to be restricted to male singers who were proficient in the music (Cobb 1989, 142-43), Sacred Harp singings welcomed participants from any protestant denomination. During the Jim Crow era, African American singers developed a distinctive Sacred Harp style that continues today. The egalitarianism at the heart of the tradition may help explain the resurgence in popularity that this music has enjoyed. New singers, especially in urban areas or on university campuses where traditional styles are unfamiliar, easily learn to sing together.

The physical structures where singers have sung Sacred Harp have helped shape their musical tastes. Veterans prefer square, wooden buildings such as rural churches and schoolhouses. The pastoral lyrics provide continuity between many participants' rural experience and the image of heaven the songs describe. And, although the tradition is portable, many of the sites for annual singings become touchstones for dispersed individuals and families. The notion of "homecoming" suggests a return while implying the dispersions and disruptions of modernity and urbanization.

For years confined to the U.S. South, Sacred Harp singings are now held throughout the country, from Florida to Washington, from California to Maine. Outside of the southeast, singings are especially prominent in New England and in the states along the West Coast, as well as in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan [see 2004 Singings Map ]. England is home to frequent singings, and singings can be found in eastern Canada. The Sacred Harp is open to any and all willing to seek out the hollow square.