Sacred Harp Singing in Northeastern Ohio

Directory of This Site

About Sacred Harp Singing

  • Sacred Harp singing is an American folk tradition of singing hymns and gospel songs from The Sacred Harp, a 150 year old songbook that uses shaped note heads to indicate position in the scale.
  • This is the type of singing that took place in the church scene in Cold Mountain.
  • Sacred Harp singing is a participatory event, not a performance, although visitors are welcome to come and listen.
  • The singers sit in a hollow square facing each other and take turns leading songs, which are sung in several parts without instrumental accompaniment.
  • The music has a distinctive open and modal sound, and the singing is usually exuberant, rhythmic and full of feeling.
  • Our singings follow traditional practice and use the 1991 edition of the Sacred Harp. Copies will be available for sale and to borrow during the singing.
  • Our singings are free and everyone is welcome to come and sing with us.

Local Singing Schedule

No local singings have been scheduled for Spring, 2008.

 

Oberlin Harmony: Songs We Like To Sing

Our songbook Oberlin Harmony: Songs We Like To Sing, is available.  It will be for sale for $7.00 each at some singings.  To order it by mail in the USA, send a check made out to Charles Wells to 105 South Cedar Street, Oberlin, Ohio 44074.   The cost postpaid in the USA is $8.50 for one book or $8.00 each for two or more. 

 

Oberlin Harmony was edited by Chloe Maher and Charles Wells, with the help of many singers from the Oberlin area.   It contains over 70 old and new songs, chosen primarily because we like to sing them.  Many are by authors connected with Oberlin, and most of them have been newly typeset.  These are the songs, listed by author:

 

Barnett, G. P.: Arkansas

Bayer, John, Jr.: Hans; Marcia; Okefenokee

Bliss, P. P.: It is Well with my Soul

Bosold, Ann: Bosold; Pontchartrain

Bradshaw: Mississippi

Brown, Bartholomew: Williamstown

Bruce, Neely: Millbrook

Chandler, Henry F.: Lisbon; Palms of Victory

Croft, William: St. Anne

Davis, Lena Mae: Sweet Peace

Davis, R.M.: Sweet Peace

Davisson, Ananias: Amandra

Dean: Consolation

Denson, S. Whitt: I Won't Turn Back

Gibbons, Dan: Sixty-Five South

Hauff, Judy: Marcia; Okefenokee

Heider, Anne: Evanston

Henkin, Doron: Works of Wonder

Heritage, E.: Marshfield

Hertzler, David: Mount Hope

Houston, Seth: Emerald Stream

Humphreys: Exultation

Hutchinson, Roland: Relly's Third

Jenks, Stephen: Painesville; Solon; South Thompson

Johnson, Ted: Boulder

Kastelle, Allen Gabriel: Aberdeen; Encouragement; Forsaken; Mount Zion (Third)

Kelly, Ron: Life's Purpose

Kinkade, Pat: Deluge

Kunkel, Hal: The Stone Forever Stands; Ten Thousand Charms

Morris, Blake: Bankes

Palazzolo, Michael: East College

Pappas, Nikos: Buzzard’s Glory; Sinking Spring

Penick, S. R.: Narrow Space

Roberts, Caradog: In Memoriam

Schedler, Eric: Wells

Stokes, Edward: The Good Old Way

Sutherland, Pete: Crossing

Swan, M. L.: Paradise

Tucker, Tom: Windgate

Walker, W.R.: Laurel Hill

Wells, Charles: Cedar Street; Harkness

Wojcik, Matthew: Sovereign Love

Wright, David: Durango; Every Grace; Old Barrows; Wells (Second); York

York, Chandler H.: The Earth; Garvin; Maher; Marietta; Muhaiyadeen; Nhat Hahn; Pondicherry; Round Pond; Roxborough;  Sophia; Wednesdays

York, Jeremy: Gilbert; Turman 

Shape Note Songs for Downloading

These are songs in four-shape notation that you may download and copy to use in singings.

They are all Acrobat .pdf files. To see or print a .pdf file you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free program that you can download from this location. Many documents are distributed in .pdf format and if you download Acrobat Reader and install it on your computer (which you need to do just once) I predict you will use it many times in the future!

Many of the songs were written by David Wright, a recent graduate of Oberlin College.

Many thanks to Karen Willard for help in typesetting.

Other locations where songs can be downloaded: Other songs, old and new, are available for downloading at these locations:

  1. the Triangle Fasola Page (North Carolina),
  2. The Gallery Music and Psalmody site (British West Gallery music, Sacred Harp's elder cousin).

Cedar Street

by Charles Wells.  Download

Durango

by David Wright. Download

Every Grace

by David Wright. Download

Harkness

by Charles Wells.  Download

It is Well with my Soul

This is a song from the J. L. White edition of The Sacred Harp (thanks to my son Matt Wells for giving it to me) which appears in Eclectic Harmony. I have retypeset it because the copy in E.H. is hard to read. Download

You can find out how to buy Eclectic Harmony in Chapter 1 of the at Resource Guide.

In Memoriam

by Caradog Roberts. This is a Welsh song with very nice words (in English!) that is often called at our weekly evening singings in Oberlin. It is posted here by permission of the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association from Welsh and English Hymns and Anthems (reformatted), page 28. Download

Old Barrows

by David Wright. Download

Paradise

This is a song from The New Harp of Columbia (a seven-shape book used in eastern Tennessee) that I have retypeset using four shape notation. I have not changed it otherwise except to add repeat signs to the second part, which aligns the typeset form with local custom in Tennessee. Download

York

by David Wright. Download

Do you have a song you would like placed here?

I will be glad to post in this location other songs that you would like to see more widely distributed. Email Charles (at) abstractmath.org for more information. Of course if it is a modern song I will need permission from the copyright owner.

Information about Sacred Harp Singing on the Web

Introductions to Sacred Harp Singing

Some good introductions are:

  1. Sacred Harp Singing: History and Tradition by Steven Sabol (short).
  2. Introduction to Sacred Harp Shape Note Singing by various people.
  3. Frequently Asked Questions about Sacred Harp Singing by Warren Steel (longer).

Main Websites

The main sources of information on the Net about Sacred Harp and other shape note singing are

  1. Warren Steel's Sacred Harp pages
  2. Fasola Home Page

These two sites have many different resources that are not listed on this Northeastern Ohio site.

Other useful or interesting resources

  1. The Initial Appeal of Sacred Harp by Gaylon Powell
  2. Shape Note Historical Background by Ishmael the Fiddler
  3. Lists of singings
  4. Websites of regional singings
  5. Sacred Harp Resource Guide
  6. The Sacred Harp Online Index
  7. The fasola mailing list
  8. Northern Harmony

Related types of music

  1. The Shape of Things to Come (seven-shape music, tall books, two staves)
  2. West Gallery music (British folk-religious music, 18th century)

Charles Wells' Personal Home Page

Charles (at) abstractmath.org