Shape-Note Singing Lives On Through Small Dedicated Following

By Greg Garrison
Religion News Service

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) The archaic sounds that fill the historic former church sanctuary echo, hauntingly, like a whispering ghost from the past.

Inside the 1902 building that once housed the Second Presbyterian Church, the elaborate archways bounce back the sound of sacred harp singing.

It's a style of music that once dominated rural evangelical religion, in the days before the Civil War and church organs, when a capella singing was the norm. It's never entirely died out, in part because of people like Tim Cook.

"It was once common throughout the South," said Cook, a shape-note singing aficionado who brought his lessons to the former church that's now part of the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.

Cook's group of more than a dozen interested singers sat facing Cook as the song leader, holding wide-page hymnbooks filled with notes in the shapes of open and solid squares, diamonds, triangles and ovals.

Throughout the 1800s, the mournful harmonious sounds of a capella shape-note singing reverberated in churches throughout the South. It's now experiencing a renaissance of sorts in Sacred Harp songbooks and conventions. But while Sacred Harp singing has surged, the slightly more complicated seven-shape-note Alabama Christian Harmony singing still struggles to stay alive.

"We certainly don't want it to die out," said Emily Creel Burleson, Ala., who carries on her family's generations-long love affair with the music. "We do it to promote the heritage and tradition of the music."

The Internet has helped create a revival for shape-note singing, connecting singers and bringing them together for events across the country.

Cook says having the notes in different shapes makes it easier to read and sing the music in four-part harmony.

Participants sing the actual note sounds first: "fa" for triangle shape notes, "sol" for oval, "la" for square and "mi" for diamond-shape notes, instead of the lyrics. That's just a tradition. Then they sing it with the lyrics.

The combination of archaic harmonies and old-style lyrics can be jolting to outsiders. To others, it's addictive. Many of the shape-note songs were written by English composers such as Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, set to old English dance tunes and carried from churches in rural England by colonial settlers.

The tradition was carried to the South, where many churches continued the shape-note a capella singing of the hymns with complex harmonies. The songs may have archaic, cryptic names such as "Old Hundred," better known in many hymnbooks as the doxology; "Amazing Grace" appears in shape-note books as "New Britain."

When pianos and organs became common in churches, a capella singing began to disappear, along with the complicated harmonies in the old hymnbooks.

Cook took up shape-note singing after moving from Michigan to Atlanta in 1995, and now teaches it and leads singings.

"I've always like to sing a capella, four-part harmony," Cook said. "When I heard this the first time, I said, `That is the voice of heaven."'

(Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News in Birmingham, Ala.)

Comments

[krakrs]

03:18 PM on 09/30/2010

"Participants sing the actual note sounds first: "fa" for triangle shape notes, "sol" for oval, "la" for square and "mi" for diamond-shape notes, instead of the lyrics. That's just a tradition."

That's not entirely true, there is a purpose behind "singing the notes". Once the intervals between the shapes are understood, you can sight read through new music fairly easily, and it also helps get the tune into your head before going back and singing the words. But yes, even when you have a room full of experienced singers who don't even need the book, the notes will still be sung, perhaps due more to "tradition" than any utilitarian purpose.

[Hysterian68]

04:37 PM on 09/28/2010

I've heard this stuff before. I much prefer dressed matins with psalmody by Orlando Gibbons.

[Kay in KCMO]

12:48 PM on 09/28/2010

This is so funny - I was just thinking about shape-note singing the last couple of days. I'd love to give it a try. It causes me a bit of grief when things like this die out; all that knowledge just disappears and we are lesser for it.

[donna50]

01:59 PM on 09/28/2010

Visit a Church of Christ in your area. We frequently use shape-note music in our song books, and most churches sing exclusively acapella. It is very rich music. Of course I am biased.

[krakrs]

03:10 PM on 09/30/2010

I am a Sacred Harp singer and church of Christ congregant, and might I humbly submit, if you want to experience shape note music, don't rely on the church of Christ to give you an idea of what it really is and can be! I don't know where you live, but Sacred Harp exists in or around most areas in the US, just google for singings in your area. Practice singings are typically held in most cities where Sacred Harp is present at least once a month, in some cities as often as 10 times a month! The REAL deal is an annual "convention" though, if you REALLY want to hear it, attend one of those! I love the church of Christ's a capella tradition, but in all honesty it can't hold a candle to the intensity of Sacred Harp singing.

[chrisfromcanada]

09:45 AM on 09/28/2010

Oh dear.

Didn't know what this was, so I looked it up on YouTube.

It would be perfectly okay with me if this evolved into extinction. No, really.

[DK in MS]

11:11 AM on 09/28/2010

It can be horrid with the wrong group of singers. it can also be amazing with the right group.

Like all musical expressions.

[SeesBeyond]

03:12 AM on 09/28/2010

Good to know this is still alive. I grew up in a church in the Midwest with shape note singing and is where I first learned the principles of musical harmony. Very haunting.

[Beth Boyle]

01:40 AM on 09/28/2010

This type of music is thought to go back to Psalm singing in Scotland.

[Dale720240]

01:02 AM on 09/28/2010

"Mournful" is right--but more like cats in heat, I say. There is a shape note group that practices weekly about a block from where I used to live. It was horrible--I would have called the cops if I'd have thought they would have done something about it.

[DK in MS]

11:08 AM on 09/28/2010

It can be pretty bad if the people doing it are beginners or (how to say this politely?) don't sing well. Shape Note singing is very difficult - it is almost always sight-reading - and the singer must have very accurate pitch as well as the ability to quickly process the changes represented in the music.

[DK in MS]

10:58 PM on 09/27/2010

Shape note singing is a wonderful exercise that I haven't done since my high school days. Truly a fascinating approach toward making music. Very gratifying to hear it still goes on.