Shape note singing is one of the oldest musical traditions in this country. It’s a practice that began in colonial America, and after centuries of ups and downs in popularity, today it’s finding an expanded and surprisingly diverse new following… and some of its singers believe the music can teach democracy a thing or two.
Join Louisville Public Media’s Laura Atkinson and Justin Hicks as they trace this tradition, from its origins 200 years ago to the largest Sacred Harp singing in living memory. “Shapes of America” is an hour-long special from Louisville Public Media and the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom.
The History of Shape Note Singing
Step back in time some 200 years, to Colonial America, and discover the birth of American music. What began as tunes handed down by settlers from the British Isles quickly morphed into something unique to this country.
A scholar on Appalachian music shares how the shapes of what would become The Sacred Harp begin to form, and letters from early Yale students and soldiers in the Civil War share how the music becomes a cultural phenomenon. A century later, though, interest is waning…
Can shape note singing survive?
The Sacred Harp's radical welcome
We begin at the Indiana State Fair to listen to shape note singing in the wild. There, we meet a documentarian working on a film about shape note singing.
Through his film, he introduces us to some characters of The Sacred Harp community — a queer singer who was ostracized from his church family, a woman whose voice was too brazen for her own Mennonite community, and a person whose nomadic, counter-culture lifestyle led them to find a surprising home in The Sacred Harp.
The largest shape note singing in living memory
The Sacred Harp publishing company announces a new edition of the “Sacred Harp” will be released. To celebrate, they organize the biggest shape note singing in modern history.
There, we meet some surprising contributors to the book along the way, including a man who found his way to The Sacred Harp through punk music. Finally, we hear the long anticipated sound of more than 700 singers from all over the world coming together to sing from the new Sacred Harp.
