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WRITING MUSIC IN THE SACRED HARP TRADITION

ry tunesmiths. Texts by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), which transition from a singing practice to a compositional
dominate The Sacred Harp, were chosen by Brittain for practice. Instead, they compose as a service to the sing-
all four of his songs that appear in the current revision ing community of which they are lifelong members.
and by Karlsberg for the composition discussed in this The next section will provide an introduction to three
article. shape-note composers followed by a more detailed ex-
Shape-note tunebooks were created primarily for planation of shape-note composition.
use in singing schools, and they have long been associ-
ated with music pedagogy. For this reason, a group of
shape-note singers is still referred to as a “class,” and Composer Biographies
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the leading of a song is still called a “lesson.” In the Jesse P. Karlsberg is the senior digital scholarship
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, traveling singing strategist at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship
masters used The Sacred Harp and other shape-note and associated faculty in the Department of Music at
books to teach music literacy and singing to rural Prot- Emory University. His initial exposure to shape-note
estant congregations. Singing schools typically oc- singing came during his undergraduate program at
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curred during agricultural lulls when there was no farm Wesleyan University, during the part of a course titled
work to tend to. They ran on average for two weeks at “Worlds of Music” that was taught by Professor Neely
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a time, with singing Monday through Friday. Each day Bruce. Bruce was the director of the choir and would
would begin at 9:00 a.m., with dinner on the grounds often write his own shape-note compositions and bring
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at noon, and conclude around 3:00 p.m. Shape-note them in for the choir to test out and sing. As Karlsberg
singers still use this schedule, along with several other explains, “Most people love it or hate it [right away],
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elements from the singing schools, as a model for pres- but my love for this music developed gradually.” His
ent-day singing events. primary interest during his undergraduate studies was
During a “singing”—a term that describes any mu- twentieth-century experimental music and composi-
sical gathering of shape-note devotees—class members tion. He was initially interested in Sacred Harp singing
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sit in a formation known as the hollow square. The for some of the same reasons that he liked experimen-
songs are mostly in four-part harmony, although occa- tal music. It was a form of group singing, and he was
sionally the alto part is missing. The melody is always already involved in choir singing, where he discovered
found in the tenor part—an inheritance from English he loved to sing with other people.
west gallery music. The tenor and treble parts are both P. Dan Brittain earned bachelor’s and master’s de-
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sung in octaves by high and low voices, which produces grees in composition and wrote music for shape-note
six-part harmony. Each voice part comprises one side singers as well as for chorus and band. He served as
of the square, and singers direct their sound to the cen- commander and conductor of the U. S. Continental
ter of the square formation. In previous and present Army Band at Fort Monroe, Virginia. After his retire-
practice, shape-note singing unites participants across ment from the army, he worked as a college band direc-
denominational lines, and many singers today come tor, a choirmaster, and, finally, a public school band di-
from non-Christian faith communities or identify as rector before he fully retired. As previously mentioned,
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non-religious. Whether or not singers affirm the be- four of his songs are included in the current Denson
liefs represented in the song texts, musical participation edition of The Sacred Harp. Upon his death in 2023, he
and community involvement are top priorities. was memorialized with a two-day singing in Arkansas
Shape-note composers emerge from this ecosystem in April 2024.
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of egalitarian and community-minded music making. Rachel Wells Hall is an associate professor of
When Karlsberg describes composers as “singers first,” mathematics at St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania,
he means that their identities and contributions as sing- where her current research focuses on mathematical
ers are more important than their identities and contri- music theory. She was also a member of the folk trio
butions as composers. A shape-note composer does not Simple Gifts. Hall has four original compositions in

CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7 11