Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music [Hardcover]

Buell E. Cobb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 1982

On any Sunday afternoon a traveler through the Deep South might chance upon the rich, full sound of Sacred Harp singing. Aided with nothing but their own voices and the traditional shape-note songbook, Sacred Harp singers produce a sound that is unmistakable--clear and full-voiced. Passed down from early settlers in the backwoods of the Southern Uplands, this religious folk tradition hearkens back to a simpler age when Sundays were a time for the Lord and the “singings.”

Illustrated with forty-one songs from the original songbook, The Sacred Harp is a comprehensive account of a unique form of folk music. Buell Cobb’s study encompasses the history of the songbook itself, an analysis of the music, and an intimate portrait of the singers who have kept alive a truly American tradition.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Never again should we allow to stand uncorrected the statement that jazz is the only truly indigenous American music.”--Chattanooga Times

"Cobb presents a thoroughly researched 'inside' view of the performance practice and cultural context of Sacred Harp folk. The media that severed Americans from oral tradition and developed a national culture at the expense of indigenous local practice has induced a rootless and nostalgia-seeking generation to return 'home' to warm themselves in the glow of traditional community singing.”--American Music

"This volume studies a southern musical tradition less well known than jazz but equally important, and emphasizes that [Sacred Harp] represents a social experience as well as a musical one for its participants."--Alabama Review

"To Buell Cobb and the University of Georgia Press goes the gratitude of fasola singers throughout the nation for their printing of this significant volume.”--Southwestern Journal of Theology

"An ‘inside’ history of the movement . . . Cobb describes in detail the tradition as a whole, its music, its early history, the editions of The Sacred Harp, and the rise and decline of the big singing conventions."--American Historical Review

"[A] definitive history . . . Buell Cobb is an authority on Sacred Harp and an enthusiastic member of the singing community."--Southern Living

"Cobb's study deserves to be included on the growing bookshelf of American musical studies. We are, perhaps, past the time when we can give Sacred Harp singing the recognition it deserves. Cobb has adequately preserved much of the meaning of that music in the lives of those who sang it.”--Ethnomusicology

"Cobb's study aims at a comprehensive presentation of the contents, history, and use of The Sacred Harp. He slights no aspect of the book and in many areas makes contributions that are fresh and important. . . . One of the few authoritative studies of a southern vernacular institution."--Journal of Southern History

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (July 31, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820304263
• ISBN-13: 978-0820304267
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,989,122 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Explanation of Shape Note Singing, November 28, 2008

By 

Kathryn J. Atwood (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music (Brown Thrasher Books) (Paperback)

In the early days of the 18th century, the quality of music in the churches of colonial New England was less than ideal. Congregational singing was accomplished through a method called "lining out," a process in which a song leader would sing a psalm, one line at a time, and the congregation would follow suit. Although the 9th edition of the Puritan Bay Psalm Book - published in 1698 - did include printed music (and was the first edition to do so), because many of the colonists weren't musically literate, there was a growing feeling among New England's musically inclined that something had to be done to improve the quality of congregational singing.

Enter "singing schools," "shape-note" singing and the subject of Buell E. Cobb Jr.'s book, "The Sacred Harp." "The Sacred Harp," the title of the last shape-note tune book to be published, was descended from a long line of shape-note books, the first of which were used in New England churches to remedy their aforementioned musical malaise. Published in 1844, "The Sacred Harp" culled many tunes from previously published shape-note books and also included some previously unknown tunes.

The concept of "shape notes" -- the method of assigning to each note of the scale a particular shape instead of giving it a specific position on the musical staff -- is well explained in Cobb's book. (Although many psalms and hymns are included in the book's appendix, there aren't any recorded in the shape-note manner.)

If "shape-note" singing (a term now interchangeable with "Sacred Harp" singing) were not vibrantly alive and well in certain areas of the American south, Buell E. Cobb's book might be simply the study of a quaint but forgotten slice of Americana. Although he often laments the difficulty of writing about something so potent and so utterly singular that must be experienced to be fully understood, Cobb brings the entire story of "sacred harp" singing - past and present - clearly into focus.

The history of Sacred Harp singing, a uniquely American story, is a tale which Buell Cobb's book tells definitively well.