Sunday is usually a time for rest. To recuperate from a crazy week, be thankful for what life has given you, celebrate in any faith you may follow, and prepare for the days to come. Having grown up with Christian parents, I have experienced the traditional Sunday mass and religious hymnals that come engrained in every service. However, these songs never had much effect on me. I never felt connected to any supreme being or holy spirit by singing the Catholic hymns I was raised on. Of course with every faith and even each individual church there comes a different type of worship music. For example, a rather large Christian church a mile away from my own church had a live rock band play every Sunday in their services. This Christian rock genre has become very popular for inspiring deep emotions in people and allowing them to access a personal connection to their spirituality. However, this music has consistently just made me feel even more alienated from my spirituality for not having the same ethereal emotions that are summoned in others around me.
I say all this as a means to premise what I experienced while singing in the shape note tradition this last weekend. Taking excerpts solely form The Sacred Harp, we sang tune after tune of powerful, open-chorded, hymnal-type music. The Sacred Harp tradition, having been based in religious practice, has a firm foundation in wanting to evoke feelings of grandeur and connect every singer in the room to some sense of divinity. However, in modern day, Sacred Harp singing has taken on a traditionally secular role. Yet people keep coming back, no matter what their personal faith is, to sing this music because it has a way of giving every participant in the room goosebumps. Technically speaking, the music is all written in parallel lines of fifths and octaves with open chords that spread a wide vocal range. What this means is that it is different from classical western art music in that it purposefully wants to sound clear and open, whereas traditional composers in the European music tradition would attempt a more balanced harmonic structure in their melodies. But it is this openness that reverberates through you when you are singing Sacred Harp music. For me, this music evoked a deeper spiritual connection than the music I grew up singing in church, all while I was surrounded by people of various faiths and backgrounds. This unique experience makes Sacred Harp singing very appealing to those who enjoy powerful music without needing a specific context to participate. Thus were born the various shape note groups that scatter the country, gathering in venues such as The Ark to give up a few hours of their lives in hopes of feeling the inherent zeal present in Sacred Harp music.
‘Wondrous Love’-An excerpt from The Sacred Harp by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King
