Echoes of the Past: Singing the Sacred Harp

In the 18th Century, religious leaders and musicians from New England created shape note singing to teach rural congregations how to easily sight-read and sing sacred music. Composers would often add religious lyrics to popular secular tunes and transcribe them onto sheet music using shaped notes associated with particular pitches. Shape note singing spread down the East Coast, and today it lives on in North Carolina through several branches of the form including the Sacred Harp.

Пікірлер: 26

  • @PMichael100
    @PMichael100 Жыл бұрын

    Lydia recently passed away. We in the Sacred Harp community are devastated. I am so glad I found this video to see her once again. I have sung with her several times at all day singing.

  • @crnkmnky

    @crnkmnky

    Жыл бұрын

    😢🌹

  • @ddibenedetto1

    @ddibenedetto1

    Жыл бұрын

    May she rest in peace. This video was my introduction to Sacred Harp.

  • @christopherscott1336

    @christopherscott1336

    7 ай бұрын

    I'm sorry for your loss. The music she sang was truly beautiful.

  • @DogeDavidLoredan

    @DogeDavidLoredan

    2 ай бұрын

    May her memory be a blessing. I’m sorry to hear that she has passed. I’m blessed to have known her through this music (and your comment and friendly dedication to her). 🌺 🌹 🔼⏹️⏺️🫶♾️

  • @BenjoReacts
    @BenjoReacts3 жыл бұрын

    My Great Great Grandfather, Seaborn Denson revised the original Sacred Harp, which became the Denson Sacred Harp. ❤️

  • @MahaliaMD73

    @MahaliaMD73

    Жыл бұрын

    Well, hello cousin! Thomas Jackson Denson is/was my Great Grandfather!

  • @BenjoReacts

    @BenjoReacts

    Жыл бұрын

    @@MahaliaMD73 hello cousin. You should check out the book our great great great grandfather, Levi Denson wrote about our Denson family history.

  • @MahaliaMD73

    @MahaliaMD73

    Жыл бұрын

    @@BenjoReacts Hello there! I used to have it but don’t have a copy anymore (long tragic story)… but I do have my Sacred Harp book that my grandmother, Tommye Mahalia Denson Mauldin, gave me when I was a little girl. I led a singing with it at the National Convention at Samford University here in Birmingham in 1982. It is absolutely one of my most treasured possessions. I need to ask my uncle for another copy of the Denson book.

  • @dakotawilson2921

    @dakotawilson2921

    7 ай бұрын

    Hi. Joseph Marion Dixon Cates is my G-G-G-G grandfather. I believe he published the first Sacred Harp hymnal, and contributed 5-6 hymns I believe.

  • @OK-Take5

    @OK-Take5

    4 ай бұрын

    My great grandfather was Leonidas Lowe Denson and my earliest memories are of going to singings that used the Denson Songbook.

  • @darlenemoak63
    @darlenemoak635 жыл бұрын

    Beautiful video!! As a shape note singer, I really appreciate documentation of the beauty of this type of singing. Truly from the soul & spirit!! Thank you!!

  • @commandert5
    @commandert54 жыл бұрын

    It's also amazing how this has caught on abroad. Some of the best conventions in recent years have been the Irish singers.

  • @ineffablemars

    @ineffablemars

    10 ай бұрын

    Strangely reminds me of folk Irish music

  • @akiko7298
    @akiko72982 жыл бұрын

    Shape note singing in elementary school helped me learn how to sing harmony without any sheet music later on. I even started to sight sing sheet music which was fun.

  • @mikenewton-ward4569
    @mikenewton-ward456920 күн бұрын

    Dan Patterson! I had him for an English class at UNC around 1976 on the texts of traditional music. He was a wonderfully warm and knowledgeable professor! We heard a lot of god music in the class. (I wrote my term paper on shape note singing.)

  • @atheodorasurname6936
    @atheodorasurname69363 жыл бұрын

    This is for all of us who love beautiful music, regardless of if they are religious or not. And sacred heart groups include large numbers of atheists and other freethinkers. I canmot understand how these exquisite Christian hymns are unknown in most churches. They have no idea of what they are missing!

  • @trukeesey8715
    @trukeesey87153 жыл бұрын

    This is about the 50th one I've tried that has talkin in it (actually more like 12th). Few years back I listened to about 50 and didn't find one with talkin. What happened?

  • @Bgsqlila
    @Bgsqlila3 ай бұрын

    What is the hand/arm raising?

  • @edouardbeaudry4837

    @edouardbeaudry4837

    2 ай бұрын

    It's to keep the tempo

  • @commandert5
    @commandert54 жыл бұрын

    I recognized Consecration and Soar Away, but none of the others.

  • @mrmmeat49

    @mrmmeat49

    4 жыл бұрын

    The opening song is 39b Sharpsburg at 0:07, then 448 Consecration at 1:25, 373 Homeward Bound at 3:05, 455 Soar Away at 4:00, 454 Better Land at 4:35 and 99 Gospel Trumpet at 5:45. All are from the Denson 1991 edition of the Sacred Harp.

  • @commandert5

    @commandert5

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@mrmmeat49 The better edition of the current two, if I do say so myself. Thank you very much

  • @debicaron6046
    @debicaron60465 жыл бұрын

    What happens if you are Soprano??

  • @WilliamWozzeck

    @WilliamWozzeck

    4 жыл бұрын

    Tenor and treble are both sung in higher and lower octaves, so either of those parts would suit you!

  • @PMichael100

    @PMichael100

    Жыл бұрын

    Sopranos are called Trebles, and men also sing in that section, usually an octave below the women. Altos are mostly all women, and basses are mostly all men, with all who want singing tenor, which carries the melody.