About a dozen singers holding songbooks sit in a square formation in the middle of a parish house. In the center of the square is the leader, who raises and and lowers her hands to guide the singers as they harmonize on four-part a cappella songs. Raw, loud, and soulful, the songs range from slow and mournful to fast and exuberant, with names such as “David’s Lamentation,” “Arbacoochee” and “Where Ceaseless Ages Roll.” This is the world of Sacred Harp singing, and scenes like this play out every month at churches and community spaces across Central and East Texas.
Sacred Harp is the oldest uniquely American Western-style musical tradition. It developed as a form of shape note music, which dates to the 11th century as a sight-reading method. Shape note music arrived in the United States from Europe in 1698 and combined elements of British hymns, folk music, and camp-meeting songs. American singing schools using shape notation methods were common throughout the early 1800s, when singing schools reached peak popularity in Texas. Then in 1844, the first edition of B.F. White and E.J. King’s The Sacred Harp was published, making the style more accessible. It continues to be the most well-known American book of shape note music.
Although New England was the birthplace of Sacred Harp singing, the tradition took hold almost exclusively in the South for decades, especially in Texas, with written records of singings in the state dating to as early as 1855. Today, there is no concrete number for how many Sacred Harp singers there are in Texas, but all-day singings and conventions can sometimes attract over 100 participants. Singers from outside Texas frequently travel to the state to attend some of these special events.
A staple of Sacred Harp is singing the music on a structured, regular basis with a group. In Texas, there are eight regular singings that occur weekly or monthly. (Dates can be found at singings.texasfasola.org.) Participants take turns standing in the middle of the square, surrounded by altos, basses, trebles, and tenors, and leading songs by beating time with their hands.
Fifth-generation singer and pastor Robert Vaughn from Mount Enterprise in Rusk County attends many regular singings and conventions in East Texas. “The Zion Hill singing here in my county is very special to me,” he says. “The church is closely connected to the church I grew up in.”
Like Vaughn, many singers grew up in a family that handed down the tradition. “I was raised singing Sacred Harp in Texas,” says Gaylon Powell, who lives in Jarrell and runs the Texas Fasola website and mailing list that keeps track of all things Sacred Harp in the state. “On my mother’s side, I am at least a fifth-generation singer. [And] I met my wife attending a Sacred Harp singing in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2010.”
Diane Ross, currently based in Dallas, is a fourth-generation singer in a family that has produced their own Sacred Harp recording. Similar to Powell, Ross met her husband, Donald, at a Sacred Harp singing. Her entire family is involved in Sacred Harp to this day. “We have a great core group of singers in Texas that support each other and each other’s singings,” she says.
The Sacred Harp community in Texas is well-known by singers worldwide for its vibrant all-day singings and conventions. Weekend conventions are jam-packed with singing, socializing, and chowing down during lunchtime, referred to by singers as “dinner on the grounds.” For Texan singers, culinary hospitality is a point of pride. Anyone fortunate enough to attend a Texas all-day singing or convention will be hard-pressed to come away hungry.
“My all-time favorite dish associated with homecomings and singings is chicken and dressing—a staple of East Texas [with] a cornbread base and the right amount of chicken broth, spices, and so forth,” says Pastor Vaughn with pride. “It was my mother’s signature dish. My wife inherited her recipe and her dressing pan to make it in. That is all it is ever used for.”
While the Sacred Harp singing community in Texas has a rich history, it thoroughly embraces newcomers—and many of the singers discover their passion for the music as a teenager or adult. “When I started coming to singings, the Texas singers immediately welcomed me and helped me understand the music and appreciate the tradition,” says Evelyn Lamb, a singer originally from Dallas who now lives in Utah and has been singing Sacred Harp music for 20 years. “The worldwide Sacred Harp singing community has an ethos of welcome and acceptance that I think is very rare.”
