Sacred Harp

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Audio sample Alabama Sacred Harp Singers , Sherburne

Sacred Harp ("Holy Harp") is a form of choral singing that originally stems from the sacred art of singing in the American South . The singers of the four voices stand or sit facing each other in a square (the "square"), whereby soprano and tenor are usually mixed with male and female voices.

history

This form of music, which is still alive today, goes back to the Shape Note songbook The Sacred Harp published by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King in 1844 , of which there have been various new editions over the years. The name Sacred Harp means the harmony of human voices. Sacred Harp music is sung in church services and at special events known as "singings" and is taught at special singing schools.

notation

Sacred harp singers use Shape Notes with different shapes of the noteheads to make it easier for the reader to identify the intervals. The hymnals, bearing the title "The Sacred Harp", there are four forms, with the Solmisations -Silben Fa , So , La , Mi correspond. In this case, comes Mi any shape except twice per octave before.

The C major scale in shape notes

Fa is a triangle, Sol is an oval, La is a rectangle and Mi is a diamond.

Sacred Harp has no absolute pitch. The shape notes represent pitch intervals in a "sliding" system. For a song in the key of C, Fa denotes C and F; for a song in G it stands for G and C. Furthermore, the songs are usually not sung in the pitch noted in the hymn book, but rather a little lower; the actual pitch is determined by a “keyer” or “pitcher” for each song, based on his assessment of which pitch is appropriate. Tuning forks or pitch pipes are not used.

Sacred harp singers usually sing the first verse of every song using the tone syllables, followed by the lyrics. This method helps you become familiar with the shapes and their intervals.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Introduction to Sacred Harp at fasola.org (English), accessed on November 11, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Sacred Harp on olemiss.edu (English), accessed on November 11, 2016.
  3. ↑ David Warren Steel in Grove Music Online: Shape-note hymnody , accessed November 11, 2016.