The little Baptist congregation in the place I grew up had a loud, out-of-tune upright piano and someone to play it most of the time. Some congregations were not so blessed, and sang their hymns a cappella, whether it was a part of their doctrine or not. Hymnals were printed with shaped notes to indicate the different voice parts. The most popular hymnal was titled Sacred Harp , and thus it became known as sacred harp singing (sacred harp referred to the human voice as a musical instrument). Some summers, there would be a singing school at the church where children were taught the parts and how to make hand movements to accompany the music. Sadly, I never attended any of the singing schools, and the first fa so la I learned was in high school chorus. This was in the sixties when The Sound of Music was a popular movie, and one of the songs our choral director selected was Do-Re-Mi . I still haven't learned to move my hands correctly to the music. Sacred harp music is alive and wel...
Bloggy Randomness. All text and images copyright of wandastricklinrobertson.