SACRED HARP SINGERS: description Sacred Harp Singers was first produced as a documentary for WMUB Public Radio, Huntsville, Alabama. In a revised form, it was distributed by National Public Radio in its Options series in October 1979. Sacred Harp Singers explores the tradition of The Sacred Harp. First published in 1844, The Sacred Harp was one of many tune-books of the period to use a system of shaped notes which had been developed around the year 1800 as an aid to sight-reading. The tradition of the Sacred Harp still continutes in portions of the rural South, especially Georgia and Alabama. Its popularity has also grown nationwide. Interviews and music for Sacred Harp Singers were recorded at a Sacred Harp convention in Arab, Alabama in 1978 and at Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church in Bremen, Georgia in 1979. Interviewed are: Hugh McGraw, a leading advocate for the tradition; Buell Cobb, author of The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music (University of Georgia Press, 1978); and singers Mac Wootten, Lisa Wootten, Carl Hughes and others. 22 songs are included, some with shapes (also called notes or fa-so-las). |