Singing the Shape

There's nothing more warming on an early, frigid and snowy Winter evening then sitting in a square and singing old songs.

That's the tradition of shape note singing, or singing the songs of the Sacred Harp. It's an ancient tradition of singing sacred songs which some say began in England, but is best identified with its precedents in the American South, and the songbook, The Sacred Harp, which was published in 1844 by Benjamin Franklin White and Elisha J. King.

Here in Middletown, Neely Bruce, professor of music and American studies at Wesleyan, is a "noted" shape note scholar and singer, who leads regular sings in Middletown.

I stumbled upon one on Sunday at the Downey House on High Street. Neely led a group of about twenty singers, seated, as tradition dictates, in a square, with various harmonic parts (trebles, tenors, basses, altos) representing sides of the square.

This gathering was a diverse group of young students, ardent shape note veterans, and even a professional singer or two. Bruce led the group by suggesting "numbers" from The Sacred Harp, occasionally stopping to review a song.

"I apologize for rehearsing," Neely said to the group. "It's not in the spirit of the music."

Members of the group also suggested songs, favoring songs of the season. Each song begins with a singing of the shapes (each note of four, fa, sol, la, mi) is indicated by a shape in the musical notation, which helps in sight reading, and then flows into the verse. The harmonies are sharp, primal and powerful. One of the features of the music is that it's designed for the singer, and not an audience. The music is actually quite powerful to hear, but more powerful as a singing participant.

Though the tradition is hundreds of years old in the American South, Bruce noted that the Sacred Harp revival in New England holds it's own.

"The revival has been going on for, what, 40 years?" he said. "I guess that officially makes a true New England tradition of the Sacred Harp."

This form of music received attention when it was featured in the film Cold Mountain. More recently a documentary on the Sacred Harp, Awake My Soul has received acclaim, and the accompanying soundtrack, which features modern interpretations of the classics, has been equally praised.