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Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music

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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.