Sacred Harp

What is Sacred Harp singing?

To the surprise of many, Sacred Harp singing does not involve an actual harp. This form of music is called Sacred Harp because the first published book of the shape notes this tradition uses is called The Scared Harp by Benjamin Franklin White. It was the first of many varieties of shape note books published in the United States.

Sacred Harp is a form of shape note singing, which means that the music notes in the books have different shapes which indicate pitch and have an assigned syllable. This form of singing is unique in the arrangement of seats. Each voice section sits in a different part of a hollow square, meaning the whole group faces inward instead of towards an audience in one direction. Singers lead their favorite Christian hymns and chants from The Sacred Harp or any other agreed-upon shape note songbook. 

Shape note music looks like this, with each shape given a different syllable for the "first pass" or when the group sings through a tune without the words to get comfortable with the melody, harmony, and rhythms. The syllables assigned to each shape are: 

Triangle - Fa

Circle - Sol

Square - La

Diamond - Mi

Below is an example of a page from The Sacred Harp

The shapes allow for flexibility of pitch. The leader of the tune with give everyone the starting pitches of the tune, but singers can request the song to be repitched higher or lower, depending on their range.

"Parting Hand" is one of the traditional ways to end Sacred Harp sessions. 

Sacred Harp in Tallahassee

There is a group of Sacred Harp singers that meet every first and third Friday of each month at the Friends' Meeting House. This group of musicians come together to sing with one another and share the love of shape note singing. Many musicians moved to Tallahassee from Appalachian regions of the United States with the shape note tradition and others discovered shape note while living in Tallahassee. 

Tallahassee has its own tune in the 2012 edition of The Sacred Harp title "Tallahassee" and it is numbered 516. Written by Morgan Bunch, this tune is "dedicated to all of the Sacred Harp singers of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama who have contributed so much of themselves to the establishment of Sacred Harp singing in Tallahassee."

The lyrics come from Andrew Reed, a British Calvinist and they are as follows: 

Spirit Divine, attend our pray’rs,
And make this house Thy home;
Descend with all Thy gracious pow’rs,
Oh come, Great Spirit, come!
Come as the light; to us reveal
Our emptiness and woe;
And lead us in those paths of life
Where all the righteous go.

Come as the dove, and spread thy wings,
The wings of peaceful love;
And let Thy church on earth become
Blest as Thy church above.
Come as the fire, and purge our hearts
Like sacrificial flame;
Let our whole soul an off’ring be
To our Redeemer’s name.

Watch below to see the 158th Texas Sacred Harp Convention sing the shape notes for "Tallahassee 516" and then the words.