Hallock Hill

Here is the first post of a series I will be doing on sacred harp singing, which has received a lot more attention lately in part because of the documentary Awake My Soul. The image above shows the title-page of the 1860 edition of The Sacred Harp, the series of hymn books that collected shape-note songs. This 1860 edition may be browsed in its entirety at Michigan State University.

The Sacred Harp Musical Association, organizers of their own excellent site, summarizes the tradition:

“Technically, our style of singing is “shape note singing” because the musical notation uses note heads in 4 distinct shapes to aid in sight-reading, but it is often called “Sacred Harp” singing because the books that most singers use today are called “The Sacred Harp,” with the most prominent of these being the 1991 Denson edition. The term “sacred harp” refers to the human voice — that is, the musical instrument you were given at birth.

“In 1844, The Sacred Harp was just one of more than 100 oblong hymn books published in the U.S. It has been continuously updated ever since. Along with other hymn books from the era, a handful of which are also still published and used, its repertoire of over 500 4-part a cappella hymns, odes, and anthems is part of the foundation of our vibrant oral tradition. There are dozens of living composers still actively writing new tunes within the traditional styles and shape note format. Other shape note books still in use today include Christian Harmony (using a 7-shape notation), New Harp of Columbia, plus several others, including some entirely new collections such as Northern Harmony.”

The Sacred Harp Musical Association indexes the entire Sacred Harp here. While this tradition is of course religious in origin, its influence may be heard throughout American folk movements.