All-Day Singing with Dinner on the Ground

The snow had just begun to fall on a Saturday morning in February as I walked toward an unfamiliar chapel in Ohio. Others were headed in the same direction, carrying oblong maroon books just like mine. Homemade signs, with a large right triangle followed by a circle and a square, confirmed that we were on course. For a while it had seemed that the old American tradition of "all-day singing with dinner on the ground" would die out. Now it seems to be making a comeback. I wanted to know why --- and how.

One piece of the puzzle was under my arm, The Sacred Harp, 1991 Edition. Like the first edition of 1844, this book uses notes with heads of four different shapes to help singers recognize their positions in the scale. Although this uniquely American system was intended to be taught in "singing schools" of two to four weeks, most people just pick it up by going to singings and following the lead of more experienced singers. Others learn it from the "rudiments" section of the book. Many singers already familiar with conventional "round notes" report greatly improved sight-reading with the shaped-note system.

I studied the compositions in the book and found a remarkably alien yet somehow genial musical style. Each of the four very independent voice parts seems like the melody while you are singing it. As a result, someone listening from a distance can't really tell what the melody is. This music isn't intended for audiences (other than God) but for singers. While the composers try to make all the parts equally interesting, they also strive for the most sonorous combinations possible, oblivious to all the "rules of harmony." The singers highlight these sonorities by singing in full voice and without vibrato. I had to experience this first hand.

When I entered the chapel, I found the chairs arranged in a hollow square with each section reserved for one of the four vocal parts. The singers chose their favorite section or migrated to one that needed support. There were about fifteen in each section when, at ten o'clock sharp, someone stepped to the center and called out a page number, "fifty-nine!" Someone else sang out the starting pitches, "fa la so---." In a few seconds, the leader's hand fell and everyone began singing with an exuberance, confidence and volume I had never heard before. The emotional impact of being part of that sound, combined with the truth of the words, was overwhelming. Maybe that's why they sing sitting down. More likely, they sit because they are planning to sing all day! By the time we parted around three-thirty, we had sung eighty-five songs. The next day we sang another eighty-five. The singers seemed to know most of the songs but they had no trouble sight reading several brand new compositions.

Only a handful of these sixty singers grew up in this tradition. The others had somehow fallen under its spell, having heard a recording or seen a demonstration at a folk festival. In Ohio, several small groups meet monthly for two or three hours to practice this community art of worship. Once a year they join forces for an all-day singing, which moves around the state. Minutes are published along with the particulars of the next year's singing. Thanks to publication on the internet and in a consolidated directory, singers around the world can simply show up at any singing. This singing included mostly Ohio singers plus a few from surrounding states and even from more distant states such as Massachusetts, Virginia and Maryland. Real enthusiasts travel to many singings each year. The three-day "National Sacred Harp Singing Convention" this June in Birmingham, Alabama drew 421 singers from 24 states and two foreign countries.

The organization of the singings is extremely democratic. A local group announces a singing and people come. They fill out a card indicating whether they wish to lead. Leaders are called in mostly random order. Each chooses one or two songs and decides which verses to sing. You can even bring your own composition and lead that. The song is always sung first with the syllables (fa sol la mi) to reinforce music reading. A song, which has already been sung that day, cannot be used again. Men and women are equally represented as leaders. Children as young as four lead too. Beginners and listeners are always welcome and "loaner" books are available. No one complains about the selection or the tempo since everyone gets a chance. Songs that don't get sung are removed from future editions and replaced by new compositions. A collection is taken to pay for rental of the space and publication of the minutes. A five-minute business meeting elects officers to plan and implement the next singing.

These events are usually a form of Christian worship, opening and closing with prayer led by an elected chaplain. They always include a "memorial lesson," where singers and friends who have died since the last singing are remembered, and the sick and homebound are prayed and sung over. Singings are often held in churches, but rarely in the sanctuary, where all the seats face the same direction. The singers need to face each other. The Sacred Harp has never been adopted by any denomination, possibly because its texts don't reinforce any denominational distinctions. Or maybe, because the democratic processes it fosters are foreign to the churches' hierarchical structure.

Some communities have retained this singing tradition for many generations. On a hot June day I found my way to one of five Alabama communities named Macedonia. It's not on the official state highway map, but the Fasola website, has maps and directions to this and most other singings. I found only about twenty-five singers and twenty listeners. There were three out-of-state singers. We sang all day in the Primitive Baptist Church in lieu of a more conventional worship service. All of the local singers had grown up in the tradition and seemed to know many of the songs by heart. Each song held a special meaning: "Granddaddy's favorite," "the last one Mama led before she died," "the one Bill Wootten always led right after dinner." All the singers agreed on when to ignore a printed accidental or insert an unprinted one. They felt the same tempo and added the same ornaments.

This singing used to be a source of community identity for the whole county, drawing hundreds. Singings in larger towns often drew thousands, filling the courthouse and the town square. The few singers I found this day included children, teenagers and young adults, so the tradition may survive. They're not sure whether the singings will continue, but they invited us all back, "same time next year."

The singers who convene at Macdonia, are trying to hold on to a connection with their own heritage and their own community. New singings are being born each year for other reasons. The Second Great Awakening, around 1800 sparked the creation of this tradition. Different factors are at work in its renaissance. After talking with many singers at a number of singings and reading hundreds of comments on the Fasola mailing list, I am beginning to understand why people are being drawn to this particular form of music and worship.

Singers always say it's the sound, and they never fail to mention the food. It's true that the sound is amazing and unique, but I believe the social and spiritual aspects are what sustain most people's interest. People are free to come and go as they wish. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and accepting of others. Everyone is actively engaged at all times. I can't think of any other large group activity where participation is so high. Some songs will be old favorites: others will require careful reading. Each new leader brings a special enthusiasm and a unique approach to the one song they have selected as being just right at that particular moment. The leading is not domineering but persuasive and encouraging. Many singers, especially in the front rows, conduct along with the leader to provide support and help communicate the tempo throughout the group. No one could accept the theology of every single song in the Sacred Harp, but everyone gets the opportunity to affirm his faith. Theology is not preached or discussed: faith is sung. The simultaneous unity and independence of the tradition provides a unique opportunity for a large group of people to attend to the Holy Spirit.

Musical literacy makes it possible. There is no other way 421 singers could come together to sing 248 songs, selected spontaneously, composed over a 230 year span, including brand new compositions, in four-part counterpoint and without rehearsal or instrumental accompaniment. I experienced this at the National Convention in June. As a college professor of sightsinging for over thirty years, this is the first time I have been surrounded by hundreds of singers who can sightsing as well as I do. Today most Americans don't even realize that it is possible to sing from musical notation at first sight. Others consider it a very special gift or the result of an elite musical education. In Birmingham, I was surrounded not by professional musicians but by men, women and children of all walks of life, most with no musical training other than singing the shapes and beating time. I am convinced that the shaped notes really do function as intended.

There will be about 200 all-day Sacred Harp singings this year. There is a smaller number of singings organized around several other traditional four- and seven-shape books. Even as a few traditional singings die each year, new ones are born where none existed before. There are no all-day singings in Maryland, but the Potomac River Sacred Harp Singing Convention recently met for its ninth year in the District of Columbia and in Northern Virginia.

Charles Deering, 1999