Sacred Harp singing - one of the things I love doing the most!

Shapenote singing or "Sacred Harp Singing" (named after the most popular songbook of its tradition) is an American a capella four-part harmony community singing tradition that got popular in Europe over the last decades.

Here's a neat little video in which my singing friend Kevin from Seatte gets the chance to present the PNW singing community.

https://youtu.be/LVYYoxSYqIk

#sacredharp #folkmusic #choir #berlinshapenote #shapenote

Dime Store Radio on Instagram: "Hugh McGraw teaching Sacred Harp singing to a local high-school choir in Georgia 1971. #sacredharp #shapenotesinging #dimestoreradio #SacredHarmony, #ShapeNoteMusic, #ShapeNoteHarmony, #SacredMusic, #SacredHarmonizing, #ShapeNoteGospel, #ShapeNoteSongs, #SacredSinging, #ShapeNoteCommunity" https://www.instagram.com/p/CrI8ELmrAtn/

I didn't know the hymn - I've checked, and it's not in Hymns Ancient & Modern, which I was brought up on. The first verse reminds me very much of "Animula, vagula, blandula" - the poem supposedly written by the dying Hadrian nearly 1900 years ago. https://coldewey.cc/2012/02/forty-three-translations-of-hadrians-animula/ I suppose it's not unlikely that Charles Wesley knew it?
I've looked up #SacredHarp in Manchester, and it seems they sing monthly at the Whitworth. https://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whats-on/events/manchestersacredharp/ - I'm sufficiently smitten that I may go, maybe in May.

"Southern Folk Heritage Series: Sounds of the South" (1960) #NowPlaying #FredMcDowell #SacredHarp #SidHemphill #AlanLomax #vinyl #vinylrecords @vinylrecords

"Southern Folk Heritage Series: White Spirituals" (1960) #NowPlaying #AlanLomax #SacredHarp #vinyl #vinylrecords @vinylrecords

Are y'all familiar with #ShapeNote / #SacredHarp singing? It's a gospel sound I've been digging into for a few years. There's really nothing out there like it. About the only description I could give is it's like a #gospel choir but early rural American and more... "primitive" and very powerful like four walls of sound. If you've seen the movie Cold Mountain or heard the soundtrack you've heard it. A trailer from a doc that came out a few years ago that will explain:

https://youtu.be/YHUfHNEZDPc

me every time i see a nice sunset:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98fVjc4MfXQ

#SacredHarp #CommunitySinging

Thomas Commuck published a book of hymn tunes in 1845, the first Native composer published in the US. Born a Narragansett, he joined the Brothertown community. The community was displaced by whites, finally settling in Wisconsin; they've recently revived singing from Commuck's collection.

Commuck self-published his book ,to make money. He got Thomas Hastings to harmonize his tunes, a smart marketing choice.

I'm working on a digitally enhanced version of the book. Here's one tune.

#SacredHarp

Thinking about #SacredHarp on the weekend of the Helwig Coghlan Memorial Singing. Which, now that I've moved, is 3,000 miles away.

#SacredHarp, the punk rock of choral singing. The video below is from the Maine All Day Singing back in July (I'm sitting in the corner opposite the camera). We sang in the pulling shed at the Cumberland County Fairgrounds. What could be better than sitting around on a hot summer day singing at full volume for five hours?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SPhSSNhPVs

Data geek meets #sacredharp https://blog.fivefiftyfour.com

Quote: "In fact, when I ran one million simulations of random birthday directories the size seen in the Minutes Book, only 564 of the simulated directories had 9 or more Sept 20."

Documentary on how Sacred Harp singing, a musical tradition of the US South, arrived in Germany. "Wir sind damals als Mitsänger auf die Bremer Gruppe gestoßen und haben diesen Film gemacht." German w/ English subtitles. A fascinating look at how a musical subculture can spread. #sacredharp #ethnomusicology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J63JvsVFoU

@danielpebrace It's interesting to compare this discussion within a church context to the religious music I'm involved in: #SacredHarp/ #ShapeNote singing and traditional English #VillageCarols, both in secular settings and mainly sung by atheists.
Approaching the music as more of a "folk" tradition makes it easier to accept some texts as drawing from a cultural/historical context that the singers don't need to share. But there are limits: the Sacred Harp is currently editing the next edition and removing some texts for more straightforward misogyny, antisemitism, and colonialism. For now I think they're planning to keep texts like Jezemiah Sumner's extremely Manifest Destiny-esque "Ode on Science" (attached), which I think works in a music-focused setting but which would be more objectionable in a church context.

#introduction Religion geek, where "religion" includes things like work (Chen 2022), sports, cult of Mao, Christian nationalism #religiousstudies Currently fascinated by the connection between Western religions and colonialism.
I sing Sacred Harp, the oldest N American choral tradition #sacredharp
My other social media platform is iNaturalist. Documenting local flora mostly. #naturalist
In Cohasset Mass USA where I'm a Unitarian Universalist clergyperson. Live with my partner of 33 years.