The Surviving Tradition of Shape Note Singing

By: Celina Bevington, ENGL 336:001

The balmy morning of Saturday, September 17^th was interrupted by sounds of laughter from Frostburg’s 6^th Annual Appalachian Festival that could be heard echoing throughout the Upper Quad of the Frostburg State University campus. Some of the voices heard were drifting down from the Cook Chapel, on the lower level of Frost Hall, where the age old American tradition of Shape Note Singing was being revived to a brand new, virgin audience.

Shape Note or Sacred Harp Singing was invented in the 1800’s in New England during a tumultuous time where composers were not being utilized and children were not being taught anything about music. John, the leader of this Sing explained this in a little more detail saying that “a lot of composers of the period wrote in this format. So, it became the format they used and these people became known as sing masters. New England started to suppress Shape Note saying that it was too rough and coarse to be taught to their high class citizens.”

Regrettably, this distinctively American tradition is all but extinct in modern culture. Thankfully, careful preservation and a strong foothold that was never eradicated in the South allow this practice to still occur. Throughout the Eastern seaboard there are pockets of people who still perform this kind of music, although if it is practiced anywhere but the South it is known as revival Sacred Harp Singing because the North stopped the practice and has only recently begun to reclaim their past cultural heritage. In both the North and the South practitioners are invited to Singing conventions that occur at certain times throughout the year in order to come together as a group and keep this tradition alive.

John and Kurt, the other leader of this Sing, laugh when recalling a large Sing that they attended in North Carolina. Kurt says, “Traditionally it is always all out singing. Your voice is shot at the end because you sing over a hundred songs each day.” Shape Note singing is easily explained and understood by people of any age because of its simple system of shapes and the fact that it is unnecessary to know how to read music in order to perform adequately, “though it does lend a bit of an advantage” remarks John. Before singing the words or lyrics of any song, the notes must be sung. The notes are in the form of shapes: triangle (fa), circle (sol), square (la), and diamond (mi). Each line of shapes is devoted to a certain part usually in the order of Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. Some of the pieces of music are sung in a way known as fuguing, or having all four parts come in at a different time and then coming back together, it is a lot tougher than a regular Shape Note song.

Ironically, most of the people who attended this presentation were surprised to find that they were pulled into the demonstration, and by the end were singing along with John and Kurt as if they had been doing it their entire lives. This audience participation began with a simple song entitled “Mear” and ended with a rousing song known as “Stratfield.” The presentation finished with a rowdy round of applause from both participants and observers. John and Kurt are both extraordinarily friendly men, but are extremely private and camera shy. They personally requested that only their first names be used and that only a picture of the Sacred Harp texts be displayed.

More information about Shape Note or Sacred Harp Singing can be found at fasola.org.