Category: Sacred Harp & Culture
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In shape-note singing, we welcome every voice, valuing participation over polish and the shared experience over individual refinement. But not every tradition has held this view. The musical reform movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries sought to reshape American congregational singing, favoring trained voices and standardized harmony over the raw, communal sound that…
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A paper on composing music in the Sacred Harp tradition is the feature article in the new March/April 2025 issue of Choral Journal (Vol. 65, No. 7). Three singers, who are also three scholars, have teamed up for the paper. Lily M. Hammond, Abigail C. Cannon, and Esther M. Morgan-Ellis have written the paper “Compositions…
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Performing at Aviva Studios Manchester, UK on 15,16 and 20-24 November, 2024. After posting about an impressive installation work in London, and a new play in Australia, I was fascinated to learn about Laurie Anderson’s newest work, ARK: United States Part 5, which includes a collaboration with shape-note singers. Premiering in Manchester last week, and…
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Whenever I mention Sacred Harp singing, almost everyone I talk to says they’ve “never heard of it.” Yet now that I’m paying closer attention, I seem to see it everywhere. Maybe it’s just the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon—a kind of observational bias where something you’ve just learned about suddenly appears in your surroundings—but I can’t help but…
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As a shape note singer interested in its history, I’ve always found beauty and power in this unique American tradition. To see this 19th-century, Southern form of spiritual folk music continually finding new life in the 21st century, especially outside the US, is deeply moving. Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst’s new exhibit “The Call” at…
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The following article, published in Musical Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 for July 1835, was part of a journal edited by Thomas Hastings, a prominent American composer and music educator who played a central role in advocating for the reform of sacred music in the United States. This article provides a critical overview of American…
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Over the weekend, the James River All Day Singing took place. A local singer, Mary P. Wright, had recently passed on and it was announced she wanted singers to have some of her books and recordings. There were only a few books, and many CDs and cassette tapes. I picked up two thin books, and…