On Valentine’s Day, 2015, over one hundred people gathered at Cannon Chapel on the Emory University campus in Atlanta, Georgia, to celebrate the publication of the new Centennial Edition of Joseph Stephen James’s Original Sacred Harp, the 1911 precursor of our own 1991 Edition.1  The event brought together singers from Georgia, Alabama, and further afield, with an international group of scholars in Atlanta for the annual meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music. A fine singing, and an engaging first look at the new Centennial Edition, the day also gave a number of musicologists their first exposure to Sacred Harp singing, and provided an opportunity to reflect on how singers from generations past articulated the relevance of our tradition to their own times and places as we do so today in a rapidly changing Sacred Harp landscape.

Front cover of the early twentieth-century second printing (top) and 2015 Centennial Edition (bottom) of Joseph Stephen James’s Original Sacred Harp. Top image courtesy of Wade Kotter.

The Original Sacred Harp was published in Atlanta in the summer of 1911. The book was the third attempt at revising The Sacred Harp in the early twentieth century, following Wilson Marion Cooper’s and James Landrum White’s revisions (today commonly known as the “Cooper book” and “White book”). Rather than remove songs, as his competitors had, James retained all of the songs in the 1870 fourth edition of The Sacred Harp, the last edition co-compiler Benjamin Franklin White edited, and restored two thirds of the songs removed in the nineteenth century.2 James also added historical notes beneath every song (of dubious reliability and occasional humor), scriptural citations below each song’s title, and adopted the page layout familiar to singers today.3 The book’s “musical editor,” Seaborn McDaniel Denson, collaborated with his brother, Thomas Jackson Denson, and their children to establish the Sacred Harp Publishing Company in 1933 and begin the work of revising James’s book. Their Original Sacred Harp: Denson Revision went through additional enlargements and revisions in the 1960s and 1970s, and was finally revised once more in 1991 by a committee led by Hugh McGraw (now secretary emeritus of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company), resulting in the publication of The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition.

Plans for the launch of the Centennial Edition began to form when M. Patrick Graham, director of Emory’s Pitts Theology Library and long-time supporter of the Emory singing, informed me that Emory’s Candler School of Theology, in which the library is located, would be hosting the 2015 meeting of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music (SCSM) at the university around the time of the Centennial Edition’s planned launch. The Atlanta singers decided to move our singing a week later than our ordinary date to coincide with the conference in the hopes of encouraging the scholars to join us. With this in mind, the conference’s organizers and the singing’s officers agreed to hold a special joint session of the SCSM and the Emory singing, mixing academic talks with singing from the new edition.4

Jesse P. Karlsberg speaks about the history and design of Original Sacred Harp at the joint session of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music and the Emory singing. Photograph by Mark Karlsberg.

The joint session began at 9:00 am, an hour before the singing’s scheduled start time to avoid cutting into time for singing, with the two planned scholarly talks. A healthy contingent of conference-goers attended, joined by a number of Sacred Harp singers who had made the trek early to hear the speakers. My own talk on the history and design of James’s Original Sacred Harp followed a talk by musicologist and Sacred Harp singer Joanna Smolko on the contemporary Sacred Harp singing community in Athens, Georgia, and the early history of shape-note singing in the area. Joshua Waggener, Assistant Professor of Music and Christian Worship at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, ably chaired the session.

Back cover of Original Sacred Harp, second printing. Courtesy of Wade Kotter.

My talk drew on physical features and design elements of the “James book” to illustrate the history, social context, and reception of the volume. We examined the book’s front cover, which proclaimed, “ALL PLATES AND EVERYTHING NEW”; its statistical yet dubious “summary statement,”5 reminiscent of then-popular factbooks; and its new regularized page layout, all of which evince how James and his collaborators sought to present Original Sacred Harp as a relevant and modern object through the book’s material features. We also noted the book’s inconsistent typography, frequent typos, and unusually tall page dimensions: evidence that a rush to print and limited financing undermined James’s quest to modernize the tunebook. We turned to the book’s back cover, scriptural citations, and the historical notes under the songs’ pages to examine how the book’s editors sought to present its contents as historically and religiously grounded, inheritors of a tradition of “SACRED MUSIC IN THE BIBLE,” as the book’s back cover reads, extending “from Jubal [on] to the present.”

After the talks, it was time to sing. Lauren Bock, the singing’s outgoing chair, brought the class to order, and the next forty-five minutes served as a chance to explore the aims of Original Sacred Harp’s contributors and editors through the book’s music. We sang songs that appeared in Original Sacred Harp with newly added alto parts, songs restored by James after having been removed in 1870, and new songs introduced to the book written in hybrid styles that nonetheless remained within the stylistic boundaries of The Sacred Harp’s nineteenth-century editions. In between singing songs, I drew on these musical examples to describe how the revisers of Original Sacred Harp retained “standard melodies” associated with the antebellum past and added songs old and new they saw as in keeping with the music already contained in the tunebook, yet made some changes aimed at asserting the book’s twentieth-century relevance.

Mary Brownlee and J. R. Hardman lead “Smyrna” from the new Centennial Edition of Original Sacred Harp. Photograph by Mark Karlsberg.

At 10:45 the joint session of the singing and conference came to a close, but the Emory singing continued. The class decided to continue singing out of Original Sacred Harp until all those who wanted to lead from the new edition had a chance to do so. During this session Mary Brownlee, a veteran treble singer from the South Georgia Convention elegantly led “Smyrna,” a challenging song by William Billings in Original Sacred Harp on the unlikely page number “238A Continued” (another example of a mishap resulting from the book’s rush to print). As Mary told the class, the song was a longtime favorite of her singing teacher Raymond Hamrick, famously a fan of Billings’s music. Hamrick, Brownlee, and many other South Georgia singers primarily sang out of Original Sacred Harp into the 1970s, their community having rejected the 1936 Denson Revision because its editors removed a favorite song of leading area singer Plez Hardin. [Learn the story of this song and its composer, Elphrey Heritage, in the previous issue of the Newsletter.—Ed.] At around 11:30 am the class turned to our tried and true copies of The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition, from which we sang for the remainder of the day.

For a class that primarily sings from the 1991 Edition, singing from the James book was less of an exercise in sight-reading than many had expected. “Smyrna,” “The Great Roll Call” (pp. 25–26 in Original Sacred Harp) and “Jordan’s Shore” (p. 486), among other songs not in the 1991 Edition were new to many singers. Yet many other songs not only overlap with our book, the descendant of Original Sacred Harp, but are musically identical, featuring the same early-twentieth century added alto parts and the same legacy of editorial changes to certain notes. This renders singing from Original Sacred Harp a distinct experience for a 1991 Edition singer than singing from the Cooper and White books, where alto parts, and occasional notes, may stray from the familiar. Singers did find the book’s unusual size to be an impediment to use. With its eight by ten inch page dimensions and 609 songs, Original Sacred Harp clocks in at three and a half pounds, ten ounces more than the 1991 Edition. We marveled at the arm strength early twentieth-century Sacred Harp singers must have attained after regularly leading from the edition.

Lauren Bock leads at the Emory singing with reporter Amy Kiley, whose story on the singing and the new Centennial Edition aired on WABE 90.1, Atlanta’s NPR affiliate. Photograph by Mark Karlsberg.

After a bountiful dinner on the grounds, at which singers were joined by a handful of conference attendees lured by the promise of southern cooking, the singing resumed. The impact of the larger than usual cohort of out-of-town singers present for the James book launch was evident in the volume and quality of the singing. A reporter from Atlanta’s NPR affiliate, WABE 90.1, periodically snagged singers in ones and twos during lunch and the after-dinner hour to speak with her about the event and their love of Sacred Harp singing while a photographer from the station snapped photos of the class. The resulting story placed the new edition in context and offered a picture of the singers, young and old, who make up the Atlanta Sacred Harp community.6 After the singing, a number of singers headed across the way to view an exhibit of hymn and tune books from the Pitts Theology Library’s Special Collections. Cases displayed first editions of many of the books containing hymns in The Sacred Harp as well as shape-note tunebooks and early New England tunebooks featuring the music of Billings and others.

Singers peruse the Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs exhibit at Pitts Theology Library after the Emory singing. Photograph by Mark Karlsberg.

Although the new Centennial Edition of Original Sacred Harp is primarily intended for research and as a collectible, it was satisfying for me, as editor of the volume, to see the book in singers’ hands and laps around the hollow square. Since the debut singing, a small number of local practice singings have devoted an evening to trying out some of the little-known songs in the book. No all-day singings are currently planning to feature the Original Sacred Harp, but those interested should keep an eye out for an announcement about this year’s United Sacred Harp Musical Association, to be held in Atlanta on September 12–13, 2015. The United convention passed a resolution authorizing the publication of the Original Sacred Harp when it met in Atlanta at only its third session in 1906 and we may use the new Centennial Edition, in honor of James, who co-founded the convention and then served as its president, for a portion of the singing this fall.

In the meantime, singers can purchase a copy of Original Sacred Harp from the Sacred Harp Publishing Company website. At a moment when Sacred Harp singing is resurgent, spreading each year to new countries around the globe, we’re proud to make accessible once more a material representation of how Sacred Harp singing was remade in early twentieth-century Atlanta for a forward-looking populace in a new century.

1. This singing report’s title is a play on a John Bealle’s 1994 article on the publication of The Sacred Harp: 1991 Edition, “New Strings on the ‘Old Harp’: The 1991 Revision of The Sacred Harp,” Tributaries: Journal of the Alabama Folklife Association 1 (1994): 5–23. Original Sacred Harp: Centennial Edition was co-published by Pitts Theology Library and the Sacred Harp Publishing Company as the eighth book in Pitts’s series Emory Texts and Studies in Ecclesial Life. I am deeply grateful to M. Patrick Graham, director of Pitts, Allen Tullos, co-director of the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (ECDS), and my colleagues on the board of directors of the Sacred Harp Publishing Company, especially Karen Rollins, John Plunkett, Hugh McGraw, Charlene Wallace, and Nathan Rees, for their support of this project from its inception. [↩]
2. Aldo Thomas Ceresa, “1859 Sacred Harp Songs Not Restored in 1911,” 2011. [↩]
3. For a taste of the humor in James’s historical notes, look to page 82. Read more at Jesse P. Karlsberg, “Original Sacred Harp Historical Notes, Volume 1,” JPKarlsberg.com, November 17, 2014, http://jpkarlsberg.com/2014/11/17/original-sacred-harp-historical-notes-volume-1/; Jesse P. Karlsberg, “John Leland and the Mammoth Cheese: Original Sacred Harp Historical Notes, Volume 2, Cheese Notes Edition,” JPKarlsberg.com, November 19, 2014, http://jpkarlsberg.com/2014/11/19/john-leland-and-the-mammoth-cheese/. [↩]
4. Thanks in particular to Lauren Bock and Megan Friddle, officers of the Emory singing, and to SCSM president Stephen A. Crist and program committee chair Jenny Bloxam for making this session possible. [↩]
5. This unusual page features a table of statistics ranging from the “Number of Tunes, Odes, and Anthems added [to the book in] 1911” (101) to rather more curious figures such as the “Total number of words and parts of words in [the book’s scriptural] citations” (18,857), the “Total number of repeats in the book” (662), and “Total number of notes used in entire book,” (“about … 115,000”). The task of fact-checking these figures was thankfully not a part of preparing the new Centennial Edition. See J. S. James et al., eds., Original Sacred Harp (Atlanta, GA, 1911), ii. [↩]
6. A few WABE listeners have even showed up at Atlanta singings in the months since the story aired. [↩]

We begin below with a little bit of what the Youth Emphasis session of Camp Fasola 2014 meant to our kids, F. (9) and C. (7), in their own words. After their account, we offer some thoughts on our experience of camp and how we’ve come to be a fasola family over the past few years. It’s well known that camp is a blast for older kids and young adults who come from around the country and around the world for the unbeatable fellowship, and for oldsters like us. We hope that our account of camp speaks to the place of the younger singers in this loving community.

F. and C. Wareh with Jackson Fleder at the camp lake.
Photograph by Jonathon Smith.

Camp Fasola 2014 in the Words of F. (9) and C. (7)

What were your favorite parts of Camp Fasola?

F.: One of my favorite parts of Camp Fasola was the teachers, because they found good ways to communicate useful information about music and other things, and gave an occasional laugh. I also liked the evening singings because they gave you a chance to exercise your new skills that you learned that day. I also liked camp recreation because it allowed variety. The food at camp was also pretty good. There are lots more things I liked about camp, and these were only the basics.

C.: Zipline. Hayride. On the hayride I sang,

A hayride is just like a sandbox.
As long as you don’t have chickenpox.
And you are eating lox.
And you have a companion fox.

We have a tour. I ask Lauren, my teacher (and a good friend) to make a crown out of hay. She tries and succeeds. We all play in the hay like it was a sandbox. Again I sing… (I won’t write it again; it takes too much trouble.)

Philip Denney making a splash on the zipline.
Photograph by Jonathon Smith.

Zipline: I grew less confident by the minute. A scary zipline. When I got there at my turn I refused. On my way back I met Pattie (mother). I went back up thinking, “I want to do that.” I went up the hill when it was my turn. I calmed myself, held, and sat—wheeeeee! I zoomed towards the water. I could almost feel the cold water. Then, before I knew what was happening, I landed gently on my back in the water. I backstroked to shore where they were clapping.

What did you learn about music at Camp Fasola?

F.: I mostly learned new songs at camp such as “Sacred Mount” (p. 456), “Stafford” (p. 78), “Youth Will Soon Be Gone” (p. 404), and others.

C.: I learned why notes have nothing inside and a stem (half notes), filling and a stem (quarter notes), no filling and no stems (whole notes), one flag, one stem (with sound, heheheee), and one with two flags filled head and stem (like flowers).

What did you learn about yourself?

F.: I didn’t really learn anything about myself this year, mostly music.

C.: I am very good at accent. I learned even more at Nathan’s class. I realized it when Daddy looked at my pink music journal I was making at camp. After that I asked a lot of people to talk without accent, if they could. Here I’d show off. The truth is, I learned it all in Nathan’s class.

What did you learn about the other campers?

F.: I mainly learned the personalities of campers, such as their tastes in music, like what songs they like.

C.: Nathan is good at accent. Lauren loves hayrides. A lot of campers in my class (including me) can make faces out of notes, rests, and bird’s eyes. (If you are a student you might try.)

What else is important to know about camp?

Campers enjoy Youth I Rudiments.
Photograph by Jonathon Smith.

F.: The day is divided up into classes. You will almost always have a choice to make, the only exception being lemonade making, so you will get to choose what to do. Also, you should know that camp only lasts a little less than a week, but the days always seem longer than a normal day.

C.: You will make many new friends. This is important because if everyone was always yelling, everything would be so frustrating. You could not even do the hayride in peace. It is also important to learn new things and build knowledge.

What would you tell people who are thinking about bringing their families to camp?

F.: I would tell them a lot of what I have said already. But I would also tell them about what the classes are like, and what my favorite classes were, but I would mainly encourage them to go.

C.: I would tell them that their children will have a long opportunity to learn music and they might become composers (like Faiz). I would tell them that they could learn in a fun way. I would tell them the excited, scared, and happy feeling of camp.

Mom’s Camp Report

For me, Camp Fasola offered an immersive several days in the shape-note culture of coming together in camaraderie and equality. Away from the stresses of my day-to-day life, I felt immediately at home among my fellow campers, who were there not only to teach and learn, but to sympathize and share.

Sacred Harp songs are not sung for an audience, but zipline (mis)adventures are not subject to the same principle.
Photograph by Jonathon Smith.

Before I came to camp, I had my mind mostly on the musical lessons ahead and didn’t give much thought to how soul-feeding it would be to give up a few days to everything that a summer camp experience could be. By the end of the three days, I had won a toenail painting contest (albeit uncontested in my category), gone down the zipline (albeit after an extreme amount of hemming and hawing), and killed a scorpion (albeit a rather tiny one). I hadn’t anticipated how much I would enjoy the camp aspects of camp—a row around the lake, having my choice of fifty friends or friends-in-the-making to sit with at breakfast, a pick-up game of ping-pong, a crowd making lemonade.

Musically, my experience involved mostly but not exclusively following the class schedule of the younger campers, as I was chaperoning my seven-year-old daughter throughout. I am also a teacher, and I constantly found myself impressed by the great variety of ways that camp teachers helped us learn. I loved watching the pedagogical flair of Lauren Bock and Scott DePoy as they drew in their young students, making learning fun with their special techniques, from the basics of working through the scale and mapping it onto well-known songs, to the great anticipation of the final day’s performance by Scotty the Bad Leader, which involved Scott leading a song as ineptly as possible so that the young ones could show off their knowledge by finding his mistakes.

C.’s notebook: Things not to do, learned from Scott the “bad leader.”

This was just one of many times at camp that young ones got to speak with authority—other times included the opportunities on Tuesday and Wednesday night for the girls and boys groups to organize and lead the powerful evening singing for all the campers and teachers. A young man from England who had benefitted from a travel scholarship aroused friendly laughter as he told about navigating customs with an unusual travel agenda, and he spoke movingly in a post-singing devotional about what learning Sacred Harp singing had meant to him in his own life.

C. and I did check out a few of the classes aimed primarily at adults, and no one ever made her feel anything less than perfectly welcome. She made certain to sign up for a favored instructor’s class on accent, and she made copious notes about the different metrical possibilities. Nathan Rees’s class emphasized that accent might seem like one more thing to keep track of, but in fact is something that the voice does naturally.

In Lela Crowder’s class on poetry, we were offered new perspectives for understanding literature in general and in the Sacred Harp in particular, as Lela spoke about the universal archetypes that make the poetry of the Sacred Harp accessible to many. As Lela made clear, it’s not a code to be cracked by a chosen few, but rather a language that speaks with meaning about universal life experiences that can also be universally understood. Lela emphasized in particular how often the idea of life as a journey appears in the Sacred Harp, illustrating this with reference to “Wayfaring Stranger” (p. 457) While the class was mostly attended by adults, she made a point of including the younger students too (Anna and C.). Here, as throughout the camp, the democratic spirit of Sacred Harp was much in evidence, as the voices of young people were invited into the conversation and treated with respect. And Lela also reminded us that a function of the Sacred Harp songs is to connect us to others who have experienced the feelings we now have. This was reinforced by having the class share their personal association with the poetry of different songs. It turns out that I am not the only one who has uncharitable thoughts when singing “Greenwich” (p. 183)!

C.’s notebook: Notes from Lela Crowder’s poetry class.

Buell Cobb’s “can’t miss” class on the etiquette of the Sacred Harp tradition offered the perfect blend of good storytelling and practical suggestions as he shared with us his thoughts about what it means to be a good leader. Buell emphasized the importance of gaining a sense of the main stream within which traditional singers have carried on singing, while resisting the attraction of the extremes—“staying well within their good example” as a new singer, as well as being responsible to the class in picking songs that they are ready and willing to sing.

Many campers did not want to miss either the leading workshop with Bridget Kennedy and Judy Caudle or the celebration of Shelbie Sheppard and her love of shoes, and so these two events were combined into an extravaganza of fun. The critiques from the teachers took place in a supportive atmosphere, staying true to the policy that Pam Nunn established at the session’s outset: “If anyone gets their feelings hurt, we’ll just have to tickle you.” Indeed, as the session progressed, more and more hilarity ensued. If Faiz has ever had more fun than seeing Judy Caudle lead “Rose of Sharon” (p. 254), notes only, on the fly, I really don’t need to know about it. At the Henagar-Union Convention the following week, Miss Shelbie’s shoes were a must-have accessory for singers honored to help carry on her memory in some small way.

I felt especially inspired by a session on Leading Songs for Girls on the last day of camp. Here all three teachers—Rachel Rudi, Lela Crowder, and Lauren Bock—involved the (mostly) young women in a discussion of how being part of the Sacred Harp community means that you have an important and empowering role to play. The teachers both shared their experiences and got many students to speak about how they had come to feel more confident as leaders. This open discussion made explicit for the girls a point that had been implicit throughout camp: that each and every voice matters. It was impressive and moving to consider how these girls’ experience of shape-note singing—together with the strong examples of their teachers—might lay a firm foundation for confidence in other areas of their lives as well.

Being at camp means hearing bits of music around you all the time. For that week at least, everyone was willing to be led by C. in yet another rendition of “Africa” (p. 178) at more or less the drop of a hat. Lying in my bunk the final night of camp, I was surrounded by music—C. in the bed to my right singing a medley of “Africa” and “Wayfaring Stranger,” and Spencer, a new singer, singing “Holy Manna” (p. 59)

Lakeside recreation for young campers. Photograph by Jonathon Smith.

Becoming a Fasola Family (by Dad)

I realized something both basically human and truly divine was missing from my life when I harmonized on some old hymns during a visit to the Coopertown, New York, Farmers’ Museum in August 2011. The space would have been perfect for a Sacred Harp singing—a 1795 wooden church that had originally served worshippers in East Durham and Cornwallville (Greene County, New York)—but it was only a welcoming museum volunteer and I whose voices were trying to fill it. A month later, I had found my way to my local Sacred Harp singing.

I had been interested in beautiful old Anglo-American and Scotch-Irish songs since I was a teenager, and I was slowly starting to perceive the charming world of old-time fiddle tunes. Despite a couple very close calls, the fasola tradition, which would prove to be the giant missing piece at the center of my personal musical puzzle, had eluded my discovery until this moment and I was driven to think practically about community singing opportunities near me in upstate New York.

I found an out-of-date listing for the monthly Albany Sacred Harp singing. One of the top Google results offering to explain this vaguely familiar phrase, “Sacred Harp”—the Awake, My Soul website with its glorious recording of “Idumea” (p. 47b)—blew my mind instantly and completely. There were people who not only came together to sing for pure joy without prerequisites or performances, but they sang like this, they sang music like this, they sang poetry like this? This was a concentrated distillation of everything I’d loved getting little glimpses of in my previous affection for American song traditions. A month later, in September 2011, I was at our Jonesville monthly singing. I had learned the shapes, and I had my own copy of the book in hand (it had arrived with a kind but unnecessary note from Jesse P. Karlsberg making sure I knew about the existence of my local singing community). Quickly the folk songs and ballads I had sung with my children at bedtime gave way to “Return Again” (p. 335) and “The Golden Harp” (p. 274t). (It may have been better for the kids to know and love this singing first as something to share in the intimacy of our family life at home, rather than first meeting it as a public event—there was no mistaking the fact that it was for us to do together.)

In November and January, I brought the whole family to the monthly singing in Lenox, Massachusetts. I met a Massachusetts singer, Christine, whose daughter had been singing from the age of ten, and I heard my children’s voices sing “Old Hundred” (p. 49t) and “The Golden Harp” with the class. By February, I had attended singing schools taught by Tom Malone and Tim Eriksen and was teaching some of the rudiments to my children at home.

Half a year in: We have a classic singing-school chart at home, and F. at six is understanding the basics of how melodies relate to the scale and the shapes.

I never looked back, and my family’s musical, social, and spiritual world has been thoroughly changed. I am sometimes asked how it is that F. and C. should come to have such a love and or deep involvement in Sacred Harp singing. I know that in a basic sense we are not the authors of this good and important thing in our family life. And I know that experiences will differ greatly from one family to another. But I believe that a crucial part of it for us was adopting into our lives a larger singing culture. Camp Fasola has been a joyous experience for us as much because it gathers and strengthens the representatives of that culture as for any other reason. What do I mean by saying that adopting a “culture” rather than merely a pastime has been important to this journey of ours? If Sacred Harp had been a mere activity among others, something to partake of in only its most approachable aspects, something we granted a defined place in our lives intended to meet our preexisting needs and desires, without letting it redefine us in important ways, then I doubt it could have held our children’s interest enough for them to become rooted in the singing as they have. In part this meant becoming part of the singing community, its fellowship and its ways. In part it meant appreciating, on their own terms, the sacred lyrics that expressed truths so dear to previous families of singers that they preserved the tunes which served that poetry, maintained the skills to sing them together in harmony, and kept the singings going strong.

Visiting the grave of a famous singing-school teacher at Henagar, Alabama, after camp. Photograph by Tarik Wareh.

In this way we have found a special kind of being alive that is worth sacrificing for. No doubt there are many other ways to find this in life; we have been content to allow this one, accepted in all its specificity, to serve our children as a type of transcendence. Sacred Harp singing could only serve our family as our musical culture because it was so much more—a coherent tradition that reaches deep into life, more than the sum of its parts, nurtured and taught with purpose by those who carried the culture forward. It has all the uniqueness and energy of something alive, and many of us who drift into it late and clueless soon find ourselves attached to its roots, committed to its purposes, and growing in its paths. None of this makes it the same or predictable for everyone under its seal; we have certainly seen in our family how Sacred Harp leads our very different natures by diverse routes to joy and knowledge. How much truer this is across the incredible diversity of the worldwide community of singers today.

Any new singer soon begins to realize that Sacred Harp singers are not simply using ordinary musical principles to render notes from the page so as to please the tastes that they or any audience may have acquired in some other milieu. There is a great tradition that informs what we do, and the singing school is undeniably a foundation of it. Camp Fasola affords to many the opportunity to drink in some of this tradition and let the life of the music breathe more fully within us. I arrived at camp for the first time with a commitment to singing as part of who I was, but this did not mean that I had figured out everything I needed to understand about what we do when we sing—quite the opposite! The connections we keep making to the people, ways, and feelings that constitute the tradition and its history can (mysteriously) even make us better known to ourselves.

F. leading at the Henagar-Union Convention after camp.
Photograph by Tarik Wareh.

In Sacred Harp, we do not take up for our own use artefacts from an age-old musical culture; we become participants in it. Otherwise, how would a family, after discovering they might love to sing, actually end up receiving the rewards promised by that first feeling of love? The surprising educative power of the shapes and of the tradition has proved itself in my family. Sacred Harp singing rekindled my only-ever-shaky amateur musical literacy, made my wife a musician for the first time, and gave my children a better foundation in music (not just singing but all music) than I could ever have hoped to impart without the singing culture’s resources of knowledge, practice, and community. Sacred Harp, unlike most cultural experiences (“for kids” or for adults), faces us with all the complications and obstacles that come from encountering another culture and making its unique values and special realities our own. Together with this, it offers all the benefits of having an entire language at our disposal; as citizens of a new world, we can begin to speak its language and in the process learn about ourselves by walking in its “old paths.”

Sacred Harp singing is a way of being with each other. It does the good work of bringing our hearts and voices together, whether or not we have any particular background or any instruction in the rudiments. Camp Fasola, with all its fun and fellowship and nightly tides of powerful song, proves this abundantly. Such communion in song has changed me and proclaimed loudly in my soul the great commandments of love for God and neighbor. But camp also shows us how and why, in our history, singers’ great concern for such higher goods has led them to be singing-school students and teachers as well. On the one hand, singers of all stripes learn songs and musical principles, how better to be together and to sing together. On the other hand, they feel the comfort and joy that comes from “finding their tribe” at Camp Lee. I think this is particularly valuable to singing children and families who may go through most of their year without enough evidence that their strangest and most wonderful pursuit is one whose creative power is at work in so many other children and families from all over.

Fasola kids together for the Henagar-Union social. Photograph by Tarik Wareh.

Editor’s Note: If Camp Fasola sounds like fun to you, we encourage you to sign up for the 2015 session. Registration for the youth session of Camp (July 6–10, at Camp Lee in Anniston, Alabama), is open online at campfasola.org. Scholarships are available.

A statue at the Chmielno, Poland, venue for Camp Fasola Europe was ready to sing. All he needed was a copy of The Sacred Harp. Photograph by Kathy Williams.

Fourteen eager travelers met at the Atlanta Airport on Thursday, September 18, 2014, to begin a thirteen-day adventure that included the nineteenth annual UK Sacred Harp Convention, the second Camp Fasola Europe, and the third annual Poland Sacred Harp Convention. The travelers included David and Karen Ivey, trip hosts and camp instructors from Huntsville, Alabama, and camp instructors Jesse P. Karlsberg from Atlanta, Georgia, Bridgett Kennedy and Buell Cobb from Birmingham, Alabama, and Dan Brittain, from Harrison, Arkansas. Our group was rounded out with lovers of Sacred Harp (and travel) from Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and beyond: Gail Doss from Nashville, Tennessee; Eddie Mash from Knoxville, Tennessee; Linda Thomas from Oneonta, Alabama; me (Kathy Williams), from Cullman, Alabama; Jo Dell Albi from New Lenox, Illinois; Susan Cherones from Cloudland, Georgia, and Henagar, Alabama; and Gill and Pam Minor from Wilmington, North Carolina. An interesting thing about that flight is that we flew right over the British Isles to a layover in Frankfurt, Germany, then hopped right back west to Manchester. Our layover in Frankfurt was long enough to have a wonderful breakfast together before meeting our connecting flight.

The Sacred Harp tour group in Warsaw, Poland. Photograph by Kathy Williams.

Upon our arrival in Manchester on Friday morning, we met our first glitch: Linda Thomas’s luggage didn’t arrive! After the first jolt of panic, the loss was reported, and the luggage was found to still be in Atlanta. Given the time difference, we hoped it would be put on a flight from Atlanta that day, and that it would arrive soon! We met our coach outside the airport and traveled about an hour to Sheffield in South Yorkshire, where we checked into our hotel and had the rest of the day to explore, rest, shop, and find restaurants.

An astonishing crowd gathered for the UK Convention, September 20, 2015. Photograph by Jesse P. Karlsberg.

Early Saturday morning, after a full English breakfast at our hotel, we made our way to the singing venue, where an astonishing crowd was gathering! What followed was a wonderful day of singing, food, fellowship, and fun. Among the most energetic and heartfelt tunes we sang were some of the slower plain tunes in the first hundred pages of our tunebook. It was a wonderful day of reunion, meeting new singers, and bringing our hearts together to sing.

When we returned to our hotel that afternoon, Linda’s mysteriously delayed luggage had arrived (celebration time!). The social that followed on Saturday night was highlighted by fish and chips dinners we had ordered during the day, followed by volunteer entertainment by singers who displayed their musical talents in genres outside of Sacred Harp. One memorable performance was Steven Levine’s rendition of an Australian song called “Bill and the Bear,” which recounts the true story of a Glaswegian emigrant to Australia, William Sinclair. Bill became famous for defeating a bear when a circus visited nearby, hence six verses and the chorus after each:

And were you there in the cold night air
when William Sinclair he fought the bear?
Were you there to see William Sinclair
When he wrestled the bear to the ground?

Sunday’s singing was just as robust and memorable as Saturday’s, and as always on the final day of a convention, poignant and bittersweet. Some memories of that day: beautiful Memorial Lesson, amazing lunch, an array of exotic cheeses, sweet goodbyes, the Parting Hand, promises to sing together again soon, and the common language of Sacred Harp music binding us together.

Family pottery designs on tile. Photograph by Kathy Williams.

Monday brought an early flight from Manchester to Gdansk, Poland, where we were met by our guide and coach for the hour’s drive to Chmielno for the official beginning of Camp Fasola Europe. After checking in, receiving our black, white, and orange tee shirts and room assignments, we had time to do some visiting in the town of Chmielno. My favorite stop of that afternoon was at a local family pottery business, which has been operated by the same family for several generations. They have a series of designs for their work, which no one else is permitted to use. We had a tour of the building, a demonstration of the potter’s wheel, the painting and glazing, and ended in a small showroom where it was not possible to leave without buying some beautiful mugs. It is also impossible not to describe this picturesque area of Poland, with high, rolling hills and beautiful lakes. The resort in Chmielno is in a lovely setting on the shore of one of those lakes. The buildings and grounds are gorgeous, one of the buildings sporting a thatched roof.

A thatched-roof building at Wichrowe Wzgórze in Chmielno, Poland, the site of Camp Fasola Europe.
Photograph by Kathy Williams.

The rest of the week was filled with a flurry of classes, singing, visiting, teaching, learning, and helping each other. Campers were divided into groups, with each group responsible for camp duties for a day: taking notes in classes, making sure chairs were set up and put away, taking charge of the one-hour singing each evening after dinner. The first night’s singing, after many of us had been singing all weekend, was a bit ragged around the edges. But we improved each night, after also singing in most of our classes. There was a delightful mix of classes from which to choose, from basic to advanced rudiments, leading, organizing conventions, arranging committee, memoirs of the Densons and Creels by Buell Cobb, and readings by Buell from his own book of Sacred Harp memories. He’s an amazing storyteller! The instructors included David and Karen Ivey, Jesse P. Karlsberg, Chris Brown, Dan Brittain, Bridgett Kennedy, and Buell Cobb.

One of my favorite and most touching memories was the Memorial Lesson, following the class taught by Bridgett Kennedy. Bridgett had spent hours on her computer writing and rewriting what she wanted to say to introduce the lesson. Somehow, the next day when she went to review her notes, they were gone; even the backups she had made sure to perform had disappeared into the ether! As she said, God had a plan for that lesson, and she was forced to speak directly from her heart. She did so eloquently, tears streaming as she shared her own experiences of loss, leading into a tender and meaningful memorial lesson.

American and English singers enjoy delicious Polish food at Camp Fasola Europe. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

Meals at camp were quite a memorable delight of Polish dishes. Breakfast and supper were buffets with breads, cheeses, meats, vegetables, and fruits. There was a selection of teas and instant coffee as well. Thanks to Dan Brittain for discovering a hidden treasure in the kitchen: thick, sludgy brewed coffee one had to know to ask for! The large meal was served at lunch time, beginning with a soup course served family style on the table. Our plentiful plates were then served by the staff dressed in local traditional costumes. One of the most interesting dishes I remember was dill pickle soup! Of course there were pierogies of different sorts as well, savory and sweet. One of our lunchtime desserts was punchbowl cake prepared in Karen Ivey’s “dinner on the ground” class using ingredients from the local market—the art of improvisation!

Kashubian musicians on the clarinet, accordion, and a percussion instrument called the “devil’s violin.”
Photograph by Linda Thomas.

A highlight of our week was an amazing performance of Kashubian folk music and dance, the dancers dressed in colorful Kashubian costumes. The performance was part dance, part history lesson, part comedy routine. We learned that the people in that region of Poland had been severely persecuted during the Communist regime, not allowed to speak their language or teach it to their children. Of course, they devised ways around that, and their culture and language survived. The music was provided by three instruments, clarinet, accordion, and a percussion instrument wielded by the leader of the group. It consisted of a wooden pole about as tall as its player, on which was a box at about knee level, which was hit with a drumstick he held in his right hand. At the top was (his description) a devil’s face modeled after his mother-in-law, with a hat on its head with a rim he used like a cymbal. So, he hit the pole on the floor, struck the box and the hat rim with his drumstick, and also rattled attachments that made a sound like a tambourine. At one point, the Kashubian leader chided a member of our group who was sitting on the front row, “the professor,” as he called him, for napping during their performance, causing an explosion of laughter. It was quite an entertaining evening!

The last night’s singing at Camp Fasola was extraordinary, a truly wonderful singing, showing the incredible growth experienced by the group during the week. The class, which brought together people from eleven countries, was probably among the most diverse ever to sing from The Sacred Harp, but in just a few days our voices had come together! That night sixty campers from those eleven countries led in that hollow square. It’s exciting to think of all the great work those campers were poised to do as they fanned out from our home for the week in northern Poland to the corners of the globe, multiplying the joy, comfort, spirit, and fellowship that we experienced together.

Our “coach,” with luggage trailer, for the journey from Chmielno to Warsaw. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

Our group of fourteen left early on Friday morning for the long drive to Warsaw, with a side trip to the resort village of Swieta Lipka, known for the Pilgrimage Church of Our Dear Lady of Swieta Lipka. Our “coach” for the day was so small that it had no room for our luggage, so they attached a luggage trailer on the back. We had one especially nervous moment when the driver stopped, got out to check the trailer, then proceeded to drive. Were they afraid we had lost the whole thing? It was a bit spooky. The drive across the countryside was beautiful, the rolling hills, farmhouses with flower boxes in every window, forests of birch trees, just breathtaking views. On the roofs of many houses and the tops of power poles were huge nests that our guide identified as stork nests—the storks had already migrated to Africa for the winter.

Pilgrimage Church of Our Dear Lady of Swieta Lipka.
Photograph by Linda Thomas.

We arrived in Swieta Lipka at lunchtime, where we had reservations at a small, traditional restaurant. We each had variations of pierogis (some with meat, some with vegetables), stuffed potatoes, and salads (more like slaw in the United States). And of course, there were shared bites to taste what everyone had ordered. We’re an adventurous lot! After lunch, we visited the Pilgrimage Church of Our Dear Lady of Swieta Lipka, one of the most important examples of Baroque architecture in Poland. We were there in time for a concert on the pipe organ, built in 1791. We were told it has 2,235 pipes. It is built on the entire west wall and is richly decorated in Baroque style. On the towers are placed sculptures depicting angels playing different instruments. These figures, together with stars and bells, are set in motion in time with the playing of the instrument. It was fascinating to watch the movement as the organist played!

Rafał Sulima’s “Polonaise” on the Swieta Lipka organ.

After having time to shop in Swieta Lipka, we resumed our journey to Warsaw. Our guide was interested in our Sacred Harp story, asked many questions, and we sang for her. She was visibly moved and accepted our invitation to come to the convention in Warsaw. She came on Sunday and stood in the square with tears in her eyes! What an influence we can have as we travel and share our music and our stories!

Buell Cobb leading at the Poland Convention, September 27, 2015. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

The Third Poland Convention began on Saturday, September 27, and was held in a stunning room with art deco touches, stylized light fixtures touched with gold edging. It proved to be a marvelous singing room as well. The class was an entirely different mix than the previous week’s singers, with some having to return home after camp, and others joining us for the first time. It was an outstanding group nevertheless! The amazing efforts by the Polish singers in hosting their third convention are to be commended. It had to be a colossal undertaking! From the venue to the food (which was a mouthwatering array of Polish delicacies) to the Memorial Lesson to the bittersweet Parting Hand—it was a sensational convention!

This story cannot be told without weaving in the creeping upper-respiratory illness (the dreaded lurgy) that began to take us one by one as the days progressed. It began at camp, insinuated its presence by slyly felling one after the other of my fellow campers. By the time we arrived stateside, Linda Thomas and I were the only ones of our group who had not fallen ill. I understand some of our UK friends also came down with it after they arrived home. It was an adventure to find out every morning which of us was still standing!

Wilanów Palace Art Museum, Warsaw. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

On Monday, September 29, we had an all-day tour of Warsaw, with another wonderful tour guide. Warsaw is almost a new city since the end of World War II, when it was destroyed, leveled by the Nazis. A few elegant residences remain because they were used by the Nazi regime during that war. One such building is the Wilanów Palace Art Museum, a Baroque royal residence and testimony to Poland’s past splendor. Other sites included the moving monument to the Holocaust near the site of the old Jewish Quarter, and the museum there, which has opened but is not fully operational yet. We finished our day with free time in the Old Town Market for shopping and visiting.

Food must be mentioned yet again! Our hotel restaurant served a version of goulash which was very much like a beef and vegetable soup, served in a soup bowl and accompanied with crusty rolls and bread. Our lunch restaurant on Monday served a very thick goulash on a plate with kasha, a cooked grain served like rice as a side dish. I’m sure there are many more versions we could have sampled if we had the time!

The flight home on a LOT Polish Airlines 787 Dreamliner. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

Late Monday afternoon our group gathered in the hotel restaurant with some others who were joining us for dinner. We learned at about 5:00 that our flight from Frankfurt to Atlanta had been cancelled, and further that Lufthansa pilots were striking on all long haul flights! After visions of sleeping late the next morning, the reality began to sink in that we still needed to get to the Warsaw Airport early the next morning to try to get out on other airlines. After a 2:30 a.m. wakeup call, we arrived at Frederic Chopin airport about 4:30 a.m. to begin making other arrangements. It took some finagling on our fearless leaders’ part and help (however grumpily) of Lufthansa agents to get all of us on one flight on LOT Polish Airlines to Chicago O’Hare, to be leaving Warsaw about noon. We had plenty of time to walk around the airport, shop, go through the duty-free shops, eat, and say goodbye to several people who passed us by on their way to earlier departures, notably Karen Willard and Błażej Matusiak, who visited with us for a while before departing. We finally boarded for the long trip to Chicago, where we switched to an American Airlines flight to Atlanta. We said goodbye to Jo Dell Albi in Chicago, a relief for her since she was to be on call the next day. It was so late when we arrived in Atlanta that connecting flights were impossible. A few of our number stayed overnight in Atlanta. Eddie Mash said he was spending the night at the airport. Buell, Bridgett, Linda and I drove to Birmingham in Bridgett’s car, thanks to Buell for driving, where Linda’s car was parked at the airport. Linda and I then drove to her house, where my truck was parked. It’s a bit more than an hour’s drive to my house at Smith Lake in Cullman, and I arrived home about 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 1. As close as my brain could figure with the changes in time, I had been up at least 36 hours, and I know others were longer than that before arriving home.

It was a fabulous trip that I think any of us would be ready to do again after a good rest! As Bridgett said, one of the best parts was having the time to visit with each other and to really get to know each other in a closer setting! Highlights of the two weeks included sharing our knowledge (and learning, always) about the Sacred Harp tradition; learning and reviewing the rudiments of the music; watching the blossoming of newcomers; and seeing, in the following weeks, their success in establishing Sacred Harp communities in their home cities around Europe. It is an amazing narrative. As a sixth generation Sacred Harp singer, I can say that my ancestors, and especially my grandparents whom I knew, would be amazed at the worldwide burst and spread of their beloved tradition. I have confidence that it will continue to grow and flourish worldwide.

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Karen and David Ivey leading at the Poland Convention with the group’s tour guide. Photograph by Linda Thomas.

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Although singers in Germany have been traveling between Frankfurt, Bremen, and Hamburg for some time now, the first opportunity to venture further south was presented to us in the autumn of 2014, when Andreas Ebert, director of the St. Martin Christian Spiritual Center in Munich, invited us to give the first Sacred Harp workshop in Bavaria. Having a reputation for more introverted spiritual practices, such as meditation and contemplation, St. Martin was looking for a contrast to its “traditional” program.

Initially, singers from Bremen, Hamburg, Giessen, and Frankfurt traveled to meet up with Tobias Saalmann in Mainz on Friday, October 3, which is “Reunification Day” (a public holiday) in Germany. Mr. Saalmann had organized an afternoon Sacred Harp workshop in a modern church building, the New Apostolic Church, in Mainz. The church space covered the logistical demands of the thirty or so workshop participants and offered excellent acoustic properties for a group of that size. The compact, coherent, and energetic lessons created a convivial atmosphere, which seemed to inspire the class to sing very well together towards the end of the workshop.

Andreas Manz describing the major and minor scales during a Sacred Harp workshop in Mainz.
Photograph by Yotin Tiewtrakul.

After the Mainz workshop, ten singers from various existing German Sacred Harp groups traveled further south to set up a mini camp (we slept on mattresses in the church) at St. Martin in Munich.

After breakfast the next day, we quickly set up a hollow square in the church and proceeded to follow the “introductory one-day workshop plan” that Andreas Manz of Frankfurt had drafted. Approximately twenty people had registered for the workshop, so the class in Munich was comprised of a similar number of singers (thirty) as that of the Mainz group.

Yotin Tiewtrakul leads during a Sacred Harp workshop in Munich. Photograph by Tobias Saalmann.

Singers from different age groups and professions attended the workshop in Munich. Most notable, perhaps, were the three friends who had discovered Sacred Harp through their hobby of reenacting the American Civil War. It was hardly surprisingly, therefore, to hear them call “Idumea” (p. 47b) and “I’m Going Home” (p. 282). [For more on the effect of the film Cold Mountain on Sacred Harp songs and singings, read “The Cold Mountain Bump”—Ed.] Another couple traveled all the way from Linz, in Austria, to attend the workshop, and we are hopeful that they will make a concerted effort to raise the profile of Sacred Harp singing in that particular corner of the world. The Munich workshop lasted from 10 am to 4:30 pm and was followed by an informal singing until 5:30 pm. The closing songs, “Bridgewater” (p. 276) and “Primrose” (p. 47t), were led by singers from Giessen (who only started to meet after the German Convention in June 2014) and Frankfurt respectively.

After the workshop in Munich, some of the participants attended an informal social at a Bavarian tavern, while others braved the Wies’n or meadow, the large outdoor venue where Oktoberfest is held, on the last day of the famous Munich Beer Festival.

Since the workshop was held in October, Munich singers have established a monthly singing in the city. The new singing is organized by Naomi Kaye Honova, an American singer currently living in Munich, and Peter Kocher, a German minister of the Lutheran Church in Bavaria.

Download Andreas Manz’s Munich Sacred Harp Workshop plan (above) or Tobias Saalmann’s “shape-note sheet” (both PDFs). 

We would like to share Andreas Manz’s workshop plan with you as we feel it provides a good reference point for planning a one-day Sacred Harp workshop. We also feel that the structure of the schedule allowed us to strike a good balance between information and singing sections. It was possible to offer the “newbies” some respite from their struggle with the shapes by breaking up the program with information sections on the history of Sacred Harp and details about its contemporary practice. The information sections started with an explanation but nearly always ended with an animated period of questions and answers.

Another excellent feature of the workshop plan was that it encouraged more established singers to take responsibility for sections of the workshop. This provided a learning experience for the more experienced participants as well as for the newcomers. Responsibility for the various sections and assignments were shared so that people could try their hand at keying, for example. Tobias Saalmann’s “shape-note sheets” constituted yet another useful tool. The sheets of paper were printed with short musical phrases represented by shape-notes —without staves or indications of rhythm. The shape-note sheets seemed to offer the class easier access to the concept of shape-notes and their corresponding intervals.

Perhaps this short report will inspire other smaller singing communities to put together and share their workshop ideas. We could also consider the provision of a Sacred Harp workshop “cloud drive,” where we could store and share workshop material.

Munich workshop team: from left to right, Yotin Tiewtrakul, Andreas Goritschnig, Andreas Manz, Laura Eisen, Tobias Saalmann, Boyan Pohl, and Joanna Bennett. Not pictured: Philip Jacobs and Eva Striebeck.

Editor’s Note: On the first Sunday in June and the Saturday before, Germany joined the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Poland as the fourth European country to hold an annual Sacred Harp convention. Sacred Harp singings have been held in Germany since late 2010, and were bolstered by a pair of all-day singing schools held in the fall of 2011. Since that time, singing communities have formed in Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. The success of the first German convention speaks to the love these new German singers have for Sacred Harp music, the bonds they’ve formed with singers across Europe and North America in the past few years, and the hard work they’ve put into strengthening Sacred Harp singing in their communities. Massachusetts Sacred Harp singer Álvaro Witt Duarte’s account paints a picture of this seminal event for those who did not have the opportunity to attend.

The first German Sacred Harp Convention was an unforgettable experience. The number of countries represented and the amount of energetic singing made the experience truly special. Held May 31 to June 1, 2014, the convention drew together singers from the several regions of Germany where Sacred Harp singings have been established in the last few years, along with visitors from around Europe and across the Atlantic.

I arrived in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, May 28, and made my way to the home of singer Philip Jacobs. The German singers had arranged for nearly everybody who did not live in the vicinity of Hamburg to stay with a local singer, a sign of the singers’ hospitality and of the effort they had put into planning for the convention.

The author, outside the Anglican Church of St. Thomas Becket in Hamburg, May 28, 2014. Photograph by Philip Jacobs.

Thursday was Ascension Day. Yotin Tiewtrakul, a Hamburg singer and also the choir director at the Anglican Church of St. Thomas Becket in Hamburg, arranged for some Sacred Harp songs, and a few new compositions, to be presented at a morning service. A group of a dozen mostly German singers gathered at 9:30 am. Seated in a hollow square formed at the middle of the church, we sang six songs sprinkled throughout the service. It was a remarkable opportunity to sing songs from a largely Baptist and Methodist tradition in the southern United States in a German Anglican church service. I enjoyed singing the songs, but it was particularly moving to see high church and low church joining in one accord.

By Thursday afternoon, singers from all over Europe and the United States were beginning to arrive in Hamburg. The singers’ exhaustion—and excitement to be together—was evident. In the evening, singers congregated at an atelier on Chemnitzstraße for an informal and energetic singing. The atelier, or artist’s studio, was owned by a friend of Hamburg singer Philip Jacobs. The acoustics there really allowed one to focus on the sound quality of the singing. Singers’ loud and enthusiastic voices attracted the attention of more than a few passers-by. They stood afar, and a couple of times a local singer went to speak to them about what they were hearing. The singing lasted until about ten. After the singing, some went out, and others traveled to their Hamburg “homes.” I found it striking that even the singers who went to bed because they were tired from a long day travel, had still had energy to sing! Only in Sacred Harp!

Early arrivals for the Germany Convention sing and socialize at an artist’s studio on Chemnitzstraße, May 28, 2014.
Photograph by Philip Jacobs.

Friday was filled with touring and singing in unexpected places. In the morning, en route to the famous St. Michaelis Lutheran Church, a group of us decided to go visit the nearby Georg Phillip Telemann House Museum, the one-room former home of an important German baroque composer. Naturally, we sang a few songs. The docent heard us then proceeded to uncover a spinet on display and allowed us to play it. Michael Walker and Calum Woods played variations of songs in The Sacred Harp, including spirited renditions of “Beach Spring” (p. 81t) and “Mear” (p. 49b).

St. Michaelis Church, May 29, 2014.
Photograph by Ellen Lueck.

Next, we went into the St. Michaelis Church. One of the five main Lutheran churches in Hamburg, St. Michaelis was founded in 1669. The present structure, built in 1786, is renowned for its 433-foot copper Baroque spire, visible from across the city. Somehow the docents there caught wind that there was a group of singers in the church and asked us to sing. We began with two songs, and then a request came for two more—we sang “Ninety-Third” (p. 31t), “New Britain” (p. 45t), “Idumea” (p. 47b), and “Old Hundred” (p. 49t). This was surely the first time that Sacred Harp ever rang out in the nearly 350-year-old church. The first couple of songs were quiet. By the third we had begun to sing with fuller voices that echoed through the sanctuary. The sound captivated tourists and visitors. They sat and listened while we sang. What an opportunity! As if singing in a famous church were not enough, some of us then went to the St. Petri Church, founded back in 1189, climbed over 500 steps to the steeple, then sang “The Solid Rock” from The Christian Harmony. We could hardly fit into the tiny space at the top. The view, however, was amazing. We were out-of-breath and sweaty from the climb, but we forgot about that the moment we caught sight of the view overlooking Hamburg. Truly great!

Sacred Harp singers outside St. Michaelis Church, just before singing in the sanctuary, May 29, 2014.
Photograph courtesy of Philip Jacobs.

That night, Michael Walker held a Christian Harmony singing school at the Ökumenisches Forum Hafencity, the some location where the convention would take place. As it was the common language for most, the singing school was held in English, rather than German, although occasionally Michael would say a word or two in German to better convey a point. Michael introduced the book, its history, its notation system, and its musical characteristics. He did a great job of presenting the book and letting its songs introduce themselves. This was a success.

Zack Lindahl, of Sweden, was the convention’s chaplain, May 31, 2014. Photograph by Ellen Lueck.

On Saturday morning, the convention itself began at 10:30. Chairman Harald Grundner, of Bremen, gave some introductory remarks, and led “St. Thomas” (p. 34b) as a first song. Zack Lindahl, a Swedish Lutheran pastor, who served as the chaplain, then gave the opening prayer. The class was energetic from the start, buoyed by large tenor and alto sections. There were no “morning songs”: leaders dove right into the book, leading challenging and energetic songs including “Consecration” (p. 448t), “Wood Street” (p. 504), and “Sing to Me of Heaven” (p. 312t). The first few hours of a brand new convention might seem overwhelming to the host community, but the German organizers handled this pressure very well.

First Germany Convention chairman Harald Grundner welcomes the class on Saturday, May 31, 2014.
Photograph by Ellen Lueck.

A wonderful thing about this convention was the diversity of singers. Aside from Germans, there were singers in attendance from England, Ireland, Poland, Sweden, and the United States. I was particularly impressed with how much the Polish leaders have learned in the few years that they have been singing—they bring a stable and calming presence in the square and command the class while leading challenging tunes like “Morning Prayer” (p. 411) and “Newburgh” (p. 182).

Three songs from the first Germany Sacred Harp Convention

As for the dinner-on-the-grounds, I must say that I have never had such a delicious lunch outside of the South. From croquettes to noodles, from salads to quiches, and from potato dishes to meat dishes, Saturday’s lunch was incredible. After this feast, there was an energetic after-lunch session of singing. The final session of the day lasted until five in the afternoon! (Thankfully we were granted a break.) The later-than-usual finish made Saturday a singing marathon.

Singing and sharing stories at the Saturday-night social, May 31, 2014. Photograph by Ellen Lueck.

The social was held in the same location as the Thursday afternoon singing on Chemnitzstraße. When I arrived, a good number of singers were already congregated in the middle of the studio singing from The Christian Harmony. Their enthusiasm made it clear just how much they enjoyed this book! When they were finished singing, we watched a documentary made mainly by the Bremen singers that explained the history of and motivations for Sacred Harp singing in Germany. Oh yes, I can’t forget to mention the fire-twirling juggler. This was not part of the scheduled events. One of the singers just happened to be an “I-play-with-fire-professionally” person, and he began doing a routine outside. Needless to say, it was an entertaining social.

Highlights from the convention’s Saturday evening social included a screening of a new documentary about Sacred Harp in Germany and fire twirling, May 31, 2014. Photographs by Ellen Lueck.

The singing resumed on Sunday morning at 10:30. It started out a bit sluggish, but we quickly came together as one class. The second session of the day started at 11:50, and went right up to the memorial lesson. Michael Walker spoke for the sick and shut-ins. He reflected on meditation, breathing in suffering, and breathing out loving-kindness. After reading the names, we sang “Dura” (p. 531). Sixteen-year-old Calum Woods spoke for the deceased. He gave a personal testimony of how much Sacred Harp has changed his life since he started singing about a year ago. As a musician and composer, he spoke about not having the will to write or compose; of an illness that kept him from making music. He concluded by saying that music helped more than medication, that all troubles and worries were lifted, that he found solace in the words, and that this music was an expression of faith, bringing him closer to God. He closed the lesson by reading the names and singing “Heavenly Land” (p. 303). The lessons were uniquely moving.

As the end of the convention neared, the arranging committee started pairing leaders by region, country, or continent. After the last leaders were called, Harald Grundner, asked for announcements and then led “Parting Hand” (p. 62) as the closing song. What was already an emotional moment became even more poignant: the class started up strong on the shapes, but when it came time to stand on the first verse, it became clear that many of the singers were too new to know the words. Still, as everyone shook hands and embraced, the sound of humming filled the room. Although not everyone sang the words of “Parting Hand,” the song’s spirit was alive in the room. Everyone left feeling thankful to the German community for hosting this exceptional convention. I expect it only to grow and thrive in the coming years.

Singers take the parting hand at the conclusion of the first Germany Sacred Harp Convention, June 1, 2014. Photograph by Ellen Lueck.