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WRITING MUSIC IN THE SACRED HARP TRADITION

the chords to begin coming together. The subsequent der singers. Hauff, incidentally, has no formal training
parts must maintain appropriate harmonic structure in music and composed her tunes orally, recording her-
when combined while still conserving their own me- self singing each part and listening back to the parts
lodic integrity. He said that this compositional process together until she was satisfied with the harmonies. 31
was difficult at first, but it “just kind of flow[ed]” once The Sacred Harp rudiments explain that:
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he became more experienced. Eighteenth-century
composer William Billings described the interaction Sacred Harp harmony does not follow the rules
between melodic parts that creates harmonies, writing: of conventional harmony, which were well es-
tablished in the 18th century. [William] Bill-
The first part [tenor] is nothing more than a ings fiercely declared his independence (‘I
flight of fancy, the other parts are forced to don’t think myself confined to any rules of
comply and conform to that, by partaking of composition laid down by any who went be-
the same air, or, at least, as much of it as they fore me’) and he practiced what he preached. 32
can get. […] therefore, the grand difficulty
in composition, is to preserve the air through The rudiments later define some of the characteristics
each part separately, and yet cause them to of conventional harmony, such as homophony, com-
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harmonize with each other at the same time. plete triads, and avoidance of parallel motion—none
of which typify Sacred Harp compositions. The rudi-
Thus, each part is both its own melody and a com- ments state that, “In composing, one should explore
ponent of a harmonic whole. In allowing each voice the harmonic possibilities and evaluate each case by its
its own melody, composers break several voice-leading sound in its own context. It is best not to be a slave to a
rules that are often present in classical music. Parallel preconceived list of concords and discords.” 33
fifths and octaves, voice crossing, and unresolved dis- Brittain has three fuging tunes included in the cur-
sonances are characteristic of the style. “I found out rent Denson revision of The Sacred Harp. Specifically,
that I had to put aside my formal training,” observed his composition titled Akin is an example of a song
Brittain. “We do a lot of parallels. There are things in which the voices interact in this way (Figure 4 on
that you can’t do in classical that you can do in Sacred the next page). Visually, the contour of each part al-
Harp.” ready appears to be melodic. Each part could be in-
Wood Street is a contemporary composition by dependent, but when the voices come together, sever-
Chicago singer Judy Hauff that exhibits a range of al unconventional part-writing elements emerge that
typical characteristics (Figure 3). It is one of four com- are characteristic of the style. The very first chord, for
positions by Hauff in the current Denson revision of instance, lacks a third, which gives it an open sound.
The Sacred Harp; her compositions also appear in other In the third measure, the treble and bass have parallel
collections (see Appendix at the end of this article). In octaves, while the alto and tenor have parallel fifths.
Wood Street, parallel octaves are present between Then, in the fuguing part, when all the voices come
the tenor and bass in m. 3 and the final measure. In back together, the tenor and alto have parallel octaves.
mm. 6-7, the alto entrance is in parallel fifths with the This is not a part-writing flaw. Rather, these parallels
tenor, while the alto moves in parallel fifths with the and open chords are integral to the style.
bass in m. 10. The treble part enters in m. 7 with a
note that is dissonant with the tenor, and a second dis-
sonance is created in m. 11 when the tenor leaps to an Composers’ Philosophies

A while the treble moves stepwise to a B . While this The community-based nature of the shape-note
composition does not include notated voice crossing, tradition affects the contents of works composed with-
voice crossing is heard between the treble and tenor in that tradition. Rather than writing with the expec-
because those parts are sung in octaves by mixed-gen- tation of a performance for an audience, both Brit-

CHORAL JOURNAL March/April 2025 Volume 65 Number 7 13