For the system of notation with which Sacred Harp music is associated, see Shape note.
"186 (Sherburne)" from the Sacred Harp
Performed by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers
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Windham (38b) from the Sacred Harp, showing the four-shape notation and the traditional oblong layout
Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in New England and was later perpetuated and carried on in the American South. The name is derived from The Sacred Harp, a ubiquitous and historically important tunebook printed in shape notes. The work was first published in 1844 and has reappeared in multiple editions ever since. Sacred Harp music represents one branch of an older tradition of American music that developed over the period 1770 to 1820 from roots in New England, with a significant, related development under the influence of "revival" services around the 1840s. This music was included in, and became profoundly associated with, books using the shape note style of notation popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries.[1]
Sacred Harp music is performed a cappella (voice only, without instruments) and originated as Protestant music.
^David Warren Steel, "Shape-note hymnody", in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press: article updated 16 October 2013) Subscription required
the SacredHarp Performed by the Alabama SacredHarp Singers Problems playing this file? See media help. SacredHarp singing is a tradition of sacred choral...
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folk musician Jean Ritchie and her family, white SacredHarp singers in Georgia, black SacredHarp singers in Alabama, and a prison choir at the Texas...
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The SacredHarp is a shape note tunebook, originally compiled in 1844 by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King in Georgia and used to this day in...
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hymnals and shape note collections like The SacredHarp. The roots of Southern Harmony singing, like the SacredHarp, are found in the American colonial era...
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The Southern Musical Convention was the first SacredHarp musical convention, organized by B. F. White and others in 1845. It was formed at Huntersville...
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers....
the Doxology as the final verse, is commonly sung to the tune. In the SacredHarp and other shape note singing traditions, the tune is sung with the text...
tunebook known as The SacredHarp. In 1844, three years before J. L. White's birth, B. F. White and Elisha J. King published The SacredHarp, using the four-shape...
called the East Texas SacredHarp Convention, is an annual gathering of shape note singers. Songs are sung a cappella from the SacredHarp tunebook. The Convention...
Ozark, Alabama) was an American sacredharp composer, songwriter, and educator. His 1934 publication The Colored SacredHarp was later recognized by scholars...
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