Our current project ”Saints Bound for Heaven,” focuses on music from the American tradition of shape-note singing, and the songbook, “The Sacred Harp.”

The Sacred Harp, published in 1844 by Benjamin Franklin White of Harris County, Georgia, has become the most enduring and endearing compilation of all the American shape note songbooks. Mr. White gave over 40 years of his life to the creations and subsequent revisions of The Sacred Harp. Aided by a community of friends, he collected, arranged and sang into existence a glorious collection of American folk hymnody.

Shapenote singing is an American tradition that began in New England in the latter part of the 18th century. By replacing traditional round note heads with shaped note heads; squares, diamonds, and triangles; itinerant singing masters were able to teach their students, mostly rural folk and lay musicians, how to read music and find pitch.

Shapenote Example

The music notated and sung was based on familiar melodies and folk tunes; music that was easily accessible to the singers. These melodies became known by their “tune” names, which were often derived from a locale, a family name, or a word from a closely associated text, i.e. “Fairfield, All is Well.” Intermingling of texts and melodies was also a common practice. A popular text could be sung with a variety of different tune settings and vice versa. And although these singing schools were not affiliated with a specific religious denomination, the prevailing music was sacred in nature. It was a grand time of musical creation and fervor.

By the beginning of the 19th century, singing schools and the shapenote system had fallen out of vogue in the Northeast as America began looking towards Europe to define its musical sophistication. The singing masters migrated south in search of work and found new pupils anxious to learn and participate in this musical form. To this day, the South is a stronghold of shapenote and Sacred Harp singing.

Attending a Sacred Harp singing is not a concert listening event but a participatory experience. A square is formed with each section: Tenor, Alto, Treble, and Bass convening on each side. A leader standing in the center of the square calls out the “lesson” or tune to be sung. When the singing begins, one is not greeted with an elegant concert choral sound, but instead a rowdy, loud, exuberant, imperfect, yet glorious sound as if by sheer volume and supreme will, the singers could shout themselves to heaven. Sacred Harp singing is an overwhelming experience and as such, does not translate will into the modern recorded musical standards.

With our “Saints Bound for Heaven” project, I did not wish to replicate something that should truly be experienced live. Instead, I hope to introduce the modern public to the exquisite beauty of the melodies and poetry preserved within the pages of the Sacred Harp.

The selections presented in “Saints Bound for Heaven” are new arrangements. Striving to find a balance between preserving the original and presenting this body of work to an audience with modern sensibilities, I hope to bring many new converts to an awareness of this beautiful American tradition.

     ~ Lisa DeSpain

For more information on shapenote singing and The Sacred Harp, try these links:

• http://fasola.org/
• http://www.originalsacredharp.com/