Sacred Harp singing, and the American singing-school movement of which it was a part, have antecedents in efforts by John Playford to teach note-reading to London parish clerks in the late seventeenth century. The earliest American tunebooks borrowed their methods and repertory almost wholly from Playford's psalters and method books.

Sacred Harp singing is a community musical and social event, emphasizing participation, not performance, where people sing songs from a tunebook called The Sacred Harp.

Shape notes are are like ordinary Western musical notation, except that the note-heads are printed in distinctive geometrical shapes to indicate their position and musical syllable. Guido of Arezzo, an eleventh-century monk, devised the hexachord system of six syllables (ut re mi_fa sol la) with specific intervals between each adjacent pair of syllables. In sixteenth-century England, singers discovered they could get by with only four syllables (mi_fa sol la).

The term "Sacred Harp" refers to a tradition of choral shape-note music. It has nothing to do with harps--or any other type of instrumentation. It is a capella vocal music which traditionally has no further accompaniment. For a much more detailed explanation of Sacred Harp music, please visit the fasola.org website, since any basic information I relate here may seem redundant by comparison.

Yes. There are a number of excellent contemporary composers working within the Sacred Harp style, including one of our own singers here in the Shiloh group. There are beautiful hymns being written in this musical tradition today. These modern compositions still fit within the well-defined and traditional concepts of Sacred Harp music.

The Sacred Harp is an oblong tunebook first published in 1844 by B.F. White and E. J. King. The book was printed in Philadelphia, but White and King lived in western Georgia, as did many other composers represented in the book. The original title reads: The Sacred Harp, a collection of psalm and hymn tunes, odes, and anthems; selected from the most eminent authors, together with nearly one hundred pieces never before published.

The Sacred Harp is an eclectic tunebook, containing examples of several different forms, genres, and styles.

a Sacred Harp singing, the songs are usually limited to those found in one of two editions of The Sacred Harp. The B.F. White Sacred Harp (Cooper Revision) predominates in Florida, Texas, and south Alabama. The Sacred Harp (1991 Edition) is generally used elsewhere in the South, and by most Sacred Harp singers outside the South. The Sacred Harp was only one of many similar tunebooks published by southern compilers.

No. You can also learn Sacred Harp from recordings, or by going to local singings. The singing school helps, but certainly isn't mandatory.

This seating arrangement is known as "the hollow square". The conductor stands in the middle. Altos and tenors face one another. Trebles (we don't say "sopranos" in Sacred Harp) and bass singers also face each other. It is a traditional arrangement. It also makes for some wonderful accoustics during larger singings.

The titles of tunebooks are often fanciful, and refer to musical and religious symbolism. Many titles refer to musical instruments; stringed instruments are especially prominent because they are mentioned in the Psalms and other scriptures, and because they are associated with David, the royal psalmist. Some present-day singers interpret the term "sacred harp" to refer to the human voice in general, or the vocal cords in particular.

Yes. Some Primitive Baptist (and other) churches still use Sacred Harp. But Sacred Harp is still a somewhat rare musical form, and often survives in "singings"--gatherings specifically devoted to the performance of Sacred Harp and other shape-note music.

For copyright reasons we are not able to supply copies of old songs (see above). If you know the title of the song or a lyric from the song it is worth trying an internet search as many folk and traditional songs are available on the web. Alternatively you could ask at your local music shop and they may be able to do a catalogue search for you. Almost all the songs from Singing Together are traditional and may well be available.

Not unless the opera happens to be English or American. The Dallas Opera has traditionally performed operas in their original languages. This isn't a hurdle for contemporary audiences because easy-to-read English translations are projected above the stage throughout every performance, even if sung in English. You'll never ever be left in the dark!

Not at all. Nobody's checking your credentials at the door. Just show up and sing along. You'll always be welcome, regardless of your background.

There’s lots of wonderful music in all genres for the folk harp now, plus a huge variety of tutorials, teaching CDs and videos. There’s no best but there is lots of debate. The real test is the sound, appearance and durability of the harp. Soundboards are often made from Sitka Spruce or Spanish Cedar or from laminated birch with the harp body in timber, stained or natural and the neck and pillar in a matching or similar timber or ply.

Actually it's not a significantly larger proportion of my choral music that's sacred. Music with a text can be divided into two broad types: sacred and secular (non-sacred). I enjoy writing both types. Sacred pieces are often useful to choirs if they want to sing in a church service, and a number of my sacred pieces have been written for church choirs. Usually it's just a matter of what text I find that I particularly like.

It looks pretty much like piano music. In fact, most of it is piano music with certain modifications. Harpists don't use the pinky finger and some musical passages playable on the piano are not possible on harp.

Doctors in the English-speaking countries started circumcising babies in the mid-1800s to prevent masturbation, which some doctors claimed caused many diseases, including epilepsy, tuberculosis and insanity. Of course, these arguments are not accepted today.

Make sure you distinguish between Old English and old English. The latter has no technical meaning and can be used to refer to anything from the earliest forms of the language to eighties 'Val Talk'. But the capitalised version refers to the language at a particular period in time, about 450-1100 AD. Many people think of Shakespeare's language as 'Old English', but Shakespeare lived between 1564 and 1616 -- almost five hundred years after the end of the Old English period!