Category: ·Historical & Scholarly Research
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In shape-note singing, we welcome every voice, valuing participation over polish and the shared experience over individual refinement. But not every tradition has held this view. The musical reform movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries sought to reshape American congregational singing, favoring trained voices and standardized harmony over the raw, communal sound that…
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The Sacred Harp Museum has once again done invaluable work in preserving and sharing historical recordings from our tradition. Their latest release—a newly digitized and remastered collection of open reel tapes from Terry Wootten—documents decades of singing in Northeast Alabama, a region deeply tied to Sacred Harp’s living tradition. Spanning from 1962 to 1982, these…
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A paper on composing music in the Sacred Harp tradition is the feature article in the new March/April 2025 issue of Choral Journal (Vol. 65, No. 7). Three singers, who are also three scholars, have teamed up for the paper. Lily M. Hammond, Abigail C. Cannon, and Esther M. Morgan-Ellis have written the paper “Compositions…
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The following essay was originally published in Auburn University AlumNews in May 1968. At the time of writing, the subject was a recent discovery for the author, and he quickly became deeply enamored with it. This piece offers an early glimpse into the perspectives of Buell E. Cobb, Jr., a scholar and writer who would…
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A Brief Biographical Chronology of General Secretaries Shape Note Minutes books serve as annual records of singing conventions, documenting attendees, leaders, and the songs led at each gathering. These books not only preserve the history of Sacred Harp style singing but also provide insight into regional traditions and the evolving shape-note community. Over the years,…
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In Hole in the Stone (Summer 1995, Vol. 6, Iss. 4), singer Alix Baillie shared her unique perspective on Sacred Harp singing in an article titled Down-Home Singing Frenzies: Sacred Harp for Pagans. Though Baillie comes from a Pagan background, she found herself captivated by the raw, communal power of Sacred Harp. Her story serves…
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The following article, published in Musical Magazine Vol. 1 No. 3 for July 1835, was part of a journal edited by Thomas Hastings, a prominent American composer and music educator who played a central role in advocating for the reform of sacred music in the United States. This article provides a critical overview of American…
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There have been a few times I’ve seen someone on Facebook ask for a recipe, and in response someone said “It might be in The Sacred Harp Cookbook”. This information is almost always met with exuberant confusion that such a thing exists and THEY DON’T HAVE IT! But there’s not just ONE, I know of…
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I have “ripped” DVDs of singings filmed by Nate Green and uploaded some of them to YouTube (with is permission). I used the publicly posted “Minutes,” published by Sacred Harp Musical Heritage Association, to give a track listing for the videos. These videos are from the personal collection of Mary Wright, passed on to me…
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We have taken the text from “Chapter 7: Older Recordings (Pre-1977) of Traditional Singers Reissued on CDs and Internet” found on Steven L. Sabol’s terrific internet resource, and I have inserted the appropriate YouTube videos of the albums he describes. We have appended the track listing provided by Jeramiah Ledbetter, who uploaded the videos into…