sacred miscellany

I'm posting two versions of this wonderful Gospel song. The first is perfect for your college or church choir, nice and smooth with some hand clapping at the end.The second is the rough-edged version recorded in Alabama with Bernice Williams leading the singing and lots of heart. She was the daughter of Dewey Williams, leader of the Wiregrass Sacred Harp Singers and a Heritage award winner.

Why do I love this particular song? It's the energy that suffuses the singing and the wonderful little riffs that are added in the bass.

This is another great recording of real people singing real music. If you want to skip the shapes (the "fa sol la" syllables), start at 1:13.

The Lees leading the singing at Mt. Pisgah Primitive Baptist Church. The hymn text is by William Cowper (1731-1800), a companion of John Newton (“Amazing Grace”). Cowper (pronounced “Cooper”) was miserable for much of his life with scruples and the conviction that he was doomed. However, others came to his assistance and he was one of the composers of the Olney Hymns. You haven’t lived until you’ve been singing these tunes, surrounded by others doing likewise. It honestly feels like flying. By the way, don’t try to understand the words the first time through the tune - they’re singing the solfège syllables!  Want to know more about shape note music - why not head over to fasola.org . Thankful for so much - for friends and family, for salvation history, for music!

A lovely shape-note tune drawn from the Psalms and sung with great tenderness by Anonymous 4. The visuals are entertaining bits of New England history and locations. This is a fuging tune, meaning that its chorus features imitative entries. This ensemble in its various combinations of singers over the years showed all of us that you could do great things with treble voices. The only requirement was four fantastic singers, good scholarship, and a heart for all types and periods of music.

Often called “the father of American choral music,” William Billings lived and worked in Boston from 1746-1800. He variously supported himself as a tanner and a singing school teacher, never with great success. However, he left a legacy of shape-note works that are sung to this day. The Easter Anthem is challenging and usually only sung at large conventions where folks really let it rip! It is rousing, lively, and full of Easter spirit. This performance by His Majesties Clerkes is combined with a slide show of Russian Orthodox icons. I’m not quite sure what Billings would have thought. The anthem is 236 in the Sacred Harp. What makes this performance stand out is the combination of professional-quality voices (using appropriate straight tone) with a spirited tempo. Several recordings I’ve reviewed of this anthem take it way too slowly and attempt to turn it into respectable church music. Remember that Billings and his contemporaries composed the music that the German-educated refo...

This is a recording made by some Primitive Baptist young people in the church at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Sacred Harp (also known as "shape-note") singing originated in England and the United States in the 18th century. The English style is called "West Gallery" music from the place in the church where the loft was located. In recent years, singers have revived the tradition in English and now there is a lively interchange of information and singers back and forth across the Atlantic. To be honest, this music lies close to my heart. My paternal grandparents came from the mountains and among their possessions was an old "Christian Harmony." However, many, many people without my personal musical inheritance love this music.  Sacred harp music is sung with a straight tone and the melody is always in the tenor line, often doubled an octave higher. It is modal and features open fifths and octaves. Some of the best-known early...