Shape Note Singing, Great Smoky Mountains

© Great Smoky Mountains Association 2012.
An old tradition that is alive and well in the Great Smoky Mountains, shape note or "Old Harp" singing blends a unique singing style with tunes from the old world. The technique was created around 1800 to instruct singers how to read music and improve congregational singing, but has held on as a spiritual practice and a time of fellowship for singers in the area.
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[@monicacall7532]

I love doing Sacred Harp (shape note music)! Standing in the center of the square and having four different parts hit you all at the same time is one of the most visceral experiences a singing person can ever have.🎵🎶

[@user-xb4pu4gr3q]

I grew up in inland New England but never got to experience Sacred Harp. Is there any recommended books, articles, or anything like that that you know of which would serve as an introduction to Sacred Harp?

[@regenehuddleston7557]

Nice too share this becuz my grandpa learned this back in 1930-1940 growing up in Arkansas &then 1980 he helped me learn this southern gospel style! May god bless u all!!

[@dono509]

Those are my brothers and sisters singing right there.

[@lindatrevillian1857]

I heard a wonderful lecture about shape note singing when I visited an old schoolhouse in the Park. Later, a friend who was hosting my visit and I drove one Saturday to a small town about 90 miles east of Gatlinburg where a small nucleus of people get together about once a month for a daylong session of shape note singing. I was fascinated, but believe me, this music major (UCLA) had a lot of difficulty keeping up! I hope that this tradition will be carried on by future generations. It is too important to be lost.

[@justforever96]

Oh, I have a feeling it will be. We're seeing quite a little surge in popularity these days, with sings all over the US and Canada, and ones in the UK, Poland, Norway, and New Zealand. I sort of worry it will get TOO poplar, but I tell myself the odds are against it. I think there is a enough to make sure the tradition is safe for another 100 years though, and there are plenty of recordings now, which helps....although right now it's an unbroken tradition going back almost 200 years, which is something you can't replace once it's gone. Like I said, I think at this point there are enough people that there will always be at least a FEW conventions every year, even if people have to travel hundreds of miles to get there. Thousands. People already do that, and those who like Sacred Harp tend to REALLY like Sacred Harp. I know I do. Barring nuclear war, we should be okay. Even if there IS nuclear war, people will need some new form of entertainment to replace the internet and TV...as long as there are a few experienced singers and some books around, you can get endless hours of enjoyment out of the Sacred Harp.

[@xxLivinginTheLightxx]

This is the way that we sing in church and learn new songs without the need of instrumentation.

[@justforever96]

Yep, it's a great system. You mean you still use it? That's awesome. I always wondered why it was abandoned, it works really well for teaching people to read music and keep pitch with each other without needing an instrument to keep everyone on track. Just find one true note, and you can see the rest instantly, because it's all relative.

[@inherentnature]

I could listen to this guy, all day

[@martyloughlin9643]

We sang with this group a week ago and had a great time. If you enjoy sing sacred music, this music sung joyfully at the top of their voice is a lot of fun. hope to do it again sometime. thanks for letting us sit with you!

[@megteg]

This is the most beautiful worship music I’ve ever heard

[@MasterMichelleFL]

I want to go sing in this church... I'm a direct descendant of the Oliver family. (I'm Jennifer Oliver).💚

[@CarolynAnnFarmer]

Wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this!

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

Looks/sounds like a lovely class! Grateful for this peek into the lives of good, down-to-earth people like this.

[@marilynvance2710]

My grandfather, Jim Pope, taught this music. The Popes lived in Roane County TN.

[@leehowell1225]

I absolutely love this type music

[@dcb805]

This is and will always be the way our congregation sings pure acapella

[@bitterblueberry]

they're singing Northfield!! one of my favorites :) fly swift around ye wheels of time

[@rayhoward363]

Cades Cove is a beautiful place, everything about the area puts your life in perspective.

[@ittybittybit]

Enjoyed this very much, beautiful :-)

[@srodriguez721]

Beautiful music being sung to our Lord Jesus.🙏🏻🙌

[@christinesullivan1229]

Love this , Thanks for posting X0

[@bingbongtoysKY]

INCREDIBLE!!!!

[@barbarasfdavis]

I moved to Knoxville to sing with you, and my dear Annie.

[@marthaperdew]

I love this

[@AmberPearcy]

I’ve been to Cades cove as a kid but didn’t know they had the singing school there. 💛💛💛

[@00Recoil]

I heard those few notes of Holy Manna and I was instantly taken there.

[@eottoe2001]

TY

[@DanielCPurdy]

Actually, it was originally three part singing. The alto part was started to be added about 1890, I understand.

[@mijiyoon5575]

We've been to *Cade's Cove* beautiful area

[@moorek1967]

Oh my goodness, I have seen shape notes in our hymn books but didn't know that is what it is. We didn't sing Sacred Harp but apparently our hymnals were designed for it.

[@justforever96]

What hymnal is that? I've never heard of a hymnal including shape notes unless it was a shape note book. In fact, there is no actual difference between the two. It's just a different way of writing the notes to make it easier to read them. A modern song written in shape notes is going to sound exactly the same (except you can sing the shapes!), and a shape note tune written n modern notation will sound the same. The thing that gives it that distinctive sound is the polyphonic harmony, with all four parts singing slightly different tunes, which creates dissonances and open chords and other sounds that are rarely heard in modern choral songs, since the "Better Music Boys" went through America and taught us all the PROPER, EUROPEAN way to sing in the mid 1800s.

[@michaelheintz8853]

This is the real thing.

[@ItsDylanHarding]

this is deeply unsettling

[@mjmollman]

This is still in used in the plain churches.

[@justforever96]

Is that Cades Cove Primitive Baptist church? Looks just like it, and I know they like shapenotes there.

[@SmokiesLife]

Yep. You are correct! Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church.

[@justforever96]

Thank you. I forgot I ever watched this, and that was my first thought as soon as I saw it again. I scrolled down to the comments to ask if it was the Cades Cove church, and saw that I had beat myself to it!

[@sherryweeks5956]

my antecedents came from Cades cove. Oliver's and the Shields.

[@virginiaoflaherty2983]

The narrator looks just like my neighbor and my husbands uncle. Both are from North Carolina.

[@Gunnar120]

Does anyone know the first song in this video? I'm trying to program for a concert and I have never heard that piece before! The high tenor sings "Sol, Sol la sol, sol, re, re do mi re do"

[@SmokiesLife]

I believe it is called "Holy Manna" in the songbook. "Brethren we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God. Will you pray with all your power while we try to preach the Word? All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and Holy Manna will be showered all around..."

[@justforever96]

That's "Holy Manna", page 59 in the Sacred Harp. But it doesn't have re and do in it. The Sacred Harp is four-shape, not seven-shape. Fa so la fa so la mi. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJ3dco2EYp13i9U

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

Yep, it's called Holy Manna. You can find it in the blue Sacred Harp book or in the Presbyterian Trinity Hymnal (in the Trinity Hymnal it's called "Brethren We Have Met to Worship" I believe). Gorgeous one. The harmonies are not quite arranged correctly in the Trinity Hymnal so get your hands on a real Sacred Harp book if you can.

[@echohunter4199]

And people have the nerve to say we have no culture or heritage.

[@sherryweeks5956]

My grandfather aught me.

[@schifferbrainz]

Not bad. I'm still looking for real shaped note on youtube.

[@lancebaker1374]

"Shape note singing" is not really accurate. The paper had shape notes printed on it, but the singing is not "shaped".

[@justforever96]

Uh....yeah. That's why it's called "shape note signing", like you said. They are shaped notes. In fact, most notes are shaped notes, just most happen to be round-shaped. But even calling it "shaped note" singing is 100% accurate. Are they NOT "shaped notes"? They aren't formless blobs on the paper, are they? I can see this is supposed to be a joke, but I don't really get it. No one suggests, even inadvertently, that the __music_ is "shaped" by calling it "shape note", or "shaped note". And who's to say that the music _isn't_ shaped? Have you ever seen music? Are we note "shaping" the sound by the mere act of singing? (If nothing else, I've sung in squares, circles and lines, and I've sung rounds, so there is that).

[@Autumn_Forest_]

As a speech-language pathologist, allow me to inform you that every time air leaves your lungs and goes through your mouth or nose, it most certainly IS shaped by your oral cavity, nasal cavity, teeth, tongue, and vocal folds. Even the sinuses of singers mark the sounds of their voices. The reason we're even able to speak with various sounds is because we shape the sounds with our bodies. When you clicked on this video, did you expect triangles and hexagons to go flying out of people's mouths like on a cartoon? I'm not being funny; I'm serious.

[@safetydave720]

I dont want to hear any crap that this has African influence. This has been done since WAY before the pilgrims' days.

[@justforever96]

Who said that it did? This is strictly "white spiritual", although it may be that some of the folk tunes they incorporated into the book were influenced by African traditions previously. Maybe. It may dismay some to hear it, but the white people of the world DID actually create one or two things without having to steal them from oppressed minorities first. I know, amazing, right? I was shocked to learn that when I got out of college and found out that not everything my professors told me was true. I've even wondered at times if maybe I DON'T have to feel permanent guilt and self-doubt for daring to be born with white skin. But then I remind myself that race relations will never improve until I kill myself over my part in the collective guilt of my race, since that makes it my fault too. Since that's totally a healthy and logical way of thinking.

[@justforever96]

Although to be strictly accurate, shape notes weren't invented until well after the Pilgrims, and while this musical style is based on an earlier British style, it did have to travel across the sea and change a bit before it settled into this new form. The Puritans didn't sing at all, and the people of the 18th century (1700s) mostly sang "lined hymnody", which is totally different, and even weirder and wilder to the modern ear than Sacred Harp, although a lot slower and less interesting.

[@kimberlyw2591]

As someone who's been shape note singing since infancy... Why would you say this?? It may not have the same degree of influence that rock'n'roll does but yes, there's actually a thriving style of shape note singing that's predominantly African-American christians- and I grew up singing shape notes in an integrated church. So yeah, it DOES have an African-American influence. Some of our songs were spirituals! Almost every art form post-columbian exchange will be that way.

[@Autumn_Forest_]

@@kimberlyw2591 But how do you know that the AA people weren't influenced by white Appalachian people?

[@michaelkingsbury4305]

Many of these tunes worst songs and snatches and ballads, about bandits, pirates, outlaws, stray lovers and rest long before they got put to Christian lyrics. Very old mostly English tunes. See Alan Lomax on shape note music.

[@freshcaughtbass]

wouldn't it have been just as easy, or easier, to stick with the established european music notation...? i was led to believe "shape note singing" was a unique style: it turns out that it is simply another way of writing down music. what i hear in the recording just sounds like badly performed, amateurish choral music, not some special regional style. dumb.

[@CentralVirginian1]

The focus is on participation. not performance.

[@moorek1967]

+freshcaughtbass That's kind of rude. It really doesn't matter how good or bad a group is when their hearts are right when singing. Come on, don't take someone's joy away because you didn't like it.

[@justforever96]

First, there was an excellent reason for shape notes, and second, shape note singing IS much different from modern choral singing. It doesn't even use the same harmonization. They adopted shape notes because most of the students in that era were musically illiterate, often totally illiterate. The type of music they had before this was "lined out" hymnody, where the preacher would chant out a line, and the rest of the congregation would then sing it back, attempting to follow one of the 10 or 12 stock tunes they knew, usually badly, and without any clue how to harmonize. What you ended up with was a total mess (although it's certainly unique and some people like it still). The shape note system was a great idea, used by traveling "singing masters" to go around and educate congregations how to sing, and actually read the notes so they could sing dozens or hundreds of tunes from a book, not just a set of tunes they had memorized. It's an excellent system, and there is no reason they couldn't still use it today. It makes it instantly clear to the reader what the relative key is for his or her part without having to assign each part a certain clef. It makes reading music MUCH easier for those of us without formal musical training, which was exactly the point. And as far as "traditional notation", they didn't HAVE it the way we have it nowadays. We still use it because: A.) it's tradition, and we want it to survive, B.) not all of the singers know how to read regular musical notation, C.) a HUGE part of the tradition is "singing the shapes", it's part of what makes it fun. Yes, the songs COULD be rendered in modern notation, but it would totally ruin it for many of the singers, and the entire point is to have fun. Which reminds me, it bears mentioning that none of these songs are ever rehearsed. _Ever_. We are allowed to sing each song once per day, period. "Singing the shapes" is the only rehearsal you get. The singers are whoever shows in off the street. The result varies, greatly. That said, shape note singing IS a unique style of singing. It sounds COMPLETELY different, and uses a totally different style of harmonization than modern choral music. Shape note singers use polyphonic harmonization, with the four sections each singing a slightly different tune, not just backing up the main melody line (which is the tenor line, not the soprano line like in modern music). I can see why you'd have trouble if you're going to judge the entire genre from a single video of a group of people singing (which is mostly a dude talking over people singing in the background anyway). THIS is shape note singing (Sacred Harp, as opposed to Old Harp): Calvary: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g6PQmaaXq7qkhZo Never Turn Back: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3alkouDnMqUhbc Babylon is Fallen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2eZnoWDi7uco8U Soar Away: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqHNZoGoebxohKs And for comparison, one you're probably familiar with as "Amazing Grace", or "New Britain", as the tune itself is actually named: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4GyoGeahNqDmLM (Note that the "choirmaster" in this video is a ten year old girl who appears to have no clue what she is doing, as all, and yet they sing it just as well as if there was a 20-yer veteran conductor leading them. Self-regulating, non-professional, fun as hell. That's shape note singing.) Personally, I can't stand most modern choral music. It's totally boring, predictable and lame, without any weight of tradition or grasssroots fun about it, and the music is so "cleaned up" and "prettified" it makes me want to go to sleep. But I don't go around to their videos telling them how much I hate their music either.

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

It's not a performance, it's closer to a worship service. Going around calling people dumb doesn't make you cool or special.

[@trumpetingangel]

It usually sounds odd and not-quite-right to the unfamiliar. We are not accustomed to the open fourths and fifths, and the dissonance (not to mention different genders singing various parts). I don't know of any "professional" shape-note singing groups. This is music for the singers, not performed for others. And we who sing it know its power, and we love it.