Song has always been compulsively unifying for groups of people. Many singing communities have existed throughout history, yet the roots of shape note singing date back to the late 1880’s. The purpose of song, and of coming together, has been universal for the shape note family throughout its history. The inherent power of song, harmonized vocally and by the commonality of purpose, has brought together the shape note community for over a century.

Kentucky’s Big Sing has been hallmark of early shape note communities and similar gatherings of song during the late 1800s. Past the turn of the century and throughout the 1900s, annual conventions, singing schools, and the evolution and publication of scored music mark the continuous and growing enthusiasm for song. Shape note communities spread throughout the South after the publication of both The Southern Harmony and The Sacred Harp. The standardization of songbooks had the many dispersed communities singing from the same texts, whose songs were of the gospel and religious genre. The shape note community has always held strong familial ties, characteristic of southern hospitality, though the power of singing, abstracted in varying ways, offers to participants a personal meaning of purpose, whose strength unifies individuals to each other, their singing group, and the extended shape note community.

I believe it was Bob Mills – a singer of Sacred Harp, musician and resident of Western Mass – who said that despite the varying reasons that brings a person to sing shape note, the reasons are inevitably “erratically different but the same.”  Several members of the shape note community noted their reasons as “a need for community,” or that friends introduced them to shape note.

Religious ties draw others to the songs; lyrics whose origins emanate from the Baptist church, though whose words have little religious implications within the singing groups.  Bob Mills acknowledges the varying means or circumstances that may have brought an individual to their first group sing, but what keeps a singer coming back to weekly meetings is universal.  The sense of togetherness amongst a group, the clarity of unified purpose in action, and the great community that the unspoken power communicates is the foremost compelling aspect that truly brings one to join the shape note family.

Shape note singing is deeply rooted in tradition. Hardly ever does the repertoire stray from the songs of The Sacred Harp, or a selected text of religious-themed songs. Favorite selections are called frequently, a group of thirty to forty familiar songs whose tunes and lyrics are well known to shape note singers, especially those like Nancy Farr, of the Northampton Harmony, who recalls joining “fifteen to twenty years ago, through friends.” Many commonalities of The Northampton Harmony’s weekly meetings, and of all shape note gatherings, are of longstanding tradition.

The parts, (alto, tenor, soprano, and bass) are typically sectioned and inward facing, each composing one of the four sides to the square that they create, in the center of which stands the song leader. The leader sings loud and clear the pitch of the song that he/she has just called, sets tempo, and leads each section along throughout the verses. Jenna Strizak spoke of ones’ initial relationship with a shape note group and that the process of becoming acquainted with a group has much to do with “becoming familiar with the tradition.”

In the early days of shape note and group singing, the emphasis placed on community was equal to that of singing itself.

“As is characteristic of farming communities, home and family are at the core of the [singing community’s] values system.  The concept of home place is itself firmly rooted in the Big Singing Day as they religiously return home for the weekend, drawn by the bonds of family, community, and identity.  Big Singing Day is actually more of a family reunion than a musical event.  The singing would surely have died off years ago if it had not been closely intertwined with homecoming and community identity” (Pen, 222).

Although times have surely changed over the past century, shape note has endured the challenges that succeeding generations have presented, and remains today a testament to the strong bonds of which Pen speaks. Ways of life have certainly changed over the past century, and the range of lifestyles has broadened. The expanse of time between weekly meetings, however, has been a constant for groups of this tradition, as has the meaning and value of time spent singing. Annual conventions bring together larger groups of shape note singers who will agree with Pen when he says, “nothing forges a community more tightly than shared song, conversation, and a good meal.” The conventions were surely regarded as a special event by several singers of The Northampton Harmony, who spoke with romantic levity of the annual events, and of the strength that so many voices can produce.

In his article, Triangles, Squares, Circles, and Diamonds, Pen discusses the affects of technology on small isolated rural communities and singing groups, during the twentieth century. “Urbanization, mobility, and the rise of media technology separated most of a generation from participation in singing schools” (Pen, 227). Industrialization and all its technological advances threatened many longstanding traditions, introducing new alternatives to communication, media, and travel. Technology turned everyday life in a new direction, or sped its pace, and shook the foundation which had for so long been the basis for communities like shape note.

Shape note singing redoubled, however, for “the same media and technology that threatened the existence of fasola singing also reintroduced the revivalist generation to Sacred Harp music” (Pen, 227). Revivalists of The Sacred Harp achieved repeated publications, recordings, radio broadcasts, and television special spread the notion of group singing, and a revival spread in western and northern directions given new means of reaching communities further afield.

Communities of shape note song have seen, among many things the turn of two centuries, and the many geo-political effects of the 1900’s. The Sacred Harp underwent transitions of geographical location as such from South to North, for The Northampton Harmony continues to sing today, and has also endured the transition of the societal ages and new generations. Enthusiasm prevails as it always has in the shape note family, and the reasons for coming together to create the potency of group harmony has sustained throughout its long lifetime.

“You need to involve yourself in it,” said Andrew McGee, one of the elder members of The Northampton Harmony. For the singers of Sacred Harp, attending weekly meetings and annual conventions has become an aspect of their life, and through their participation resides the tradition of over a hundred year’s history. A familial passion for the songs runs through the strong familial ties of shared understanding, a common sense of meaning, strength, and purpose. The Sacred Harp communities alive and strong today attest to the dedication of its members and the significance within whose lives singing holds. The experience of indescribable ancient feelings, brings knowing smiles to the faces of singers, as they reminisce their past time.

WORK CITED

Pen, Ron. Triangles, Squares, Circles, and Diamonds. Musics of Multicultural America, pgs. 209-232.