The Sacred Harp: fa sol la: What is this music?

The Sacred Harp: fa-sol-la: What is this music?

One very odd and amazing experience I had when I lived in Alabama involved church hymns. An elderly gentleman for whom I held much respect invited me to “a singin’” at his church, and since I enjoy music, I went. I was not prepared for what “a singin’” actually was, but after I got over the shock, I really liked it. It was one of the most transcending, worshipful services I can remember.

Sacred Harp Singin’

What that gentleman referred to as ‘a singin’” was actually an a capella tradition also called Sacred Harp or Fa Sol La singing. Sacred Harp seems historically to have begun in New England in the late 1700s, but spread, especially in the American South, through the mid 1800s. Because it is performed a cappella, the churches that practice it are the churches that traditionally do not incorporate musical instruments into their services. Hand motions are used by the singers to keep time.

The Full Description

Going to a Sacred Harp singin’ can be a little (or a lot) confusing. First of all, there is no “audience.” All those who attend sit with those of like vocal range and sing at the very top of their lungs, following the book in harmony. There is a leader who stands in the middle. The tenor part carries the tune.

“The Sacred Harp tunes are written in standard notation, except that the notes appear in four different shapes — so the music is also called “shape note.” Itinerant early American tunesmiths and singing masters used this four-note system to teach sight reading to people without musical training. Most of us first learned a seven-note “solfege” system: do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. The Sacred Harp uses the old four-note English system: fa-sol-la-fa-sol-la-mi-fa. With our shape-note system, there’s no need to worry about different keys. The shapes ingeniously indicate the different pitches. The interval between, say, any fa and the la above it is always the same. Before singing the words to a Sacred Harp tune, we “sing the notes” by singing the syllables of the shapes. People who hear Sacred Harp music for the first time are often baffled when the entire room breaks out into what sounds like gibberish. New singers may be daunted by the shapes, especially on fast songs. But the person who now confidently sings mile-a-minute fa-sol-las had to learn them slowly, too. Jump in and sing “la” if you aren’t sure; you’ll be right 25% of the time. The shapes that seem so strange at first will soon help you to sight sing. Fa, sol, la, mi — the four basic notes. First time at a Sacred Harp singing? Tenor (melody) 3rd line Treble top line Alto 2nd line in music Bass bottom line Voice parts in Ida Noyes Hall C major scale, written to show how the shapes appear in whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes” (https://collab.its.virginia.edu/access/content/group/ebb21a75-4402-4500-ba86-41cada55fadb/ShapeNoteIntroduction.pdf).

Listen!

There is something very special and inspiring about sitting in the middle of such singing. It also transcends generational gaps for those who enjoy the genre. Here is a link to Pullen Memorial Baptist Church from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Perhaps you might listen and see what you think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s52JDzvIEBg

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, and God bless you!