November 18, 2012 - Proper 28

"The Sacred Harp":Jerusalem - William Walker
Merrick - John Newton, arr. Genensky/Hellauer
Where We'll Never Grow Old - James C. Moore
I've Got That Old Time Religion in My Heart
                                                     - Hurdist Milsap

Hymns: Dix, #380 Old Hundredth, Marching to Zion

This month we have been celebrating American music. This Sunday’s music is taken from the shape note tradition. The prelude and postlude come from the later seven note (Aiken) tradition while the two choral anthems are taken from the older four note or, fasola tradition.

Fasola or “Sacred Harp” singing takes its name from the 1844 publication The Sacred Harp by Benjamin White. The title of this book is a bit misleading but many early hymnals were referred to as “harp” and the sacred harp of the title is the human voice. This style of singing is not a concerted performance to be observed but a participatory tradition. Singers get together for “singings” which typically last all-day (with dinner on the ground.) The singers form a hollow square with one voice part on each side with space in the center for the leader. Anyone is welcome to lead a song at these events. The leader calls out the number and which verses are to be sung and he or she beats time while facing the tenors – the melody is typically found in the tenor part in this tradition.

One of the unique and to some confusing things about this tradition is the actual print music, the shapes. Fasola singing is so named because it makes use of only four syllables, fa-sol-la-fa-sol-la-mi makes up a scale. This methodology was used to teach sight reading. In a scale there is always a half step before the syllable “fa.” Each syllable has its own shape: fa is a right triangle, sol is a round note, la is a rectangle, and mi a diamond. This simplified way of teaching sight-singing was looked down on by the musical elite and so this music became relegated to rural communities. As time went on the music grew in popularity and is still sung today in much the same way that it was first presented 200 years ago. Here in New York there are active singing communities in Rochester, Ithaca, New York City, and Utica. There are large singings held annually and new members are always welcome.

Jerusalem was written by (or possibly collected by) William Walker (1809-1875). Walker is credited with the composition of many tunes from his 1835 publication Southern Harmony but it is possible that many of them were actually collected during his travels throughout the South. He and his brother-in-law, Benjamin White (publisher of The Sacred Harp) traveled throughout the Appalachians and the South collecting folk tunes and ballads to preserve what up to that point was a primarily oral tradition. Merrick is a setting of John Newton’s (1725-1807) text, Savior Visit Thy Plantation. This arrangement was written by Marsha Genesky and Susan Hellauer of the group Anonymous 4. It features the ladies of the choir in beautiful four part harmony.

The piano music gave me a chance to draw on my personal history. For this I have taken two classics from the seven note (Aiken) tradition. In this tradition each syllable of the scale has its own shape. Those of the fasola tradition are the same with the addition of “do”, an equilateral triangle, “re” a semi-circle and “ti” an ice cream cone shaped note.  This style of music can into popularity in the South at the turn of the Twentieth century. Publishing companies like Stamps-Baxter and James D. Vaughan would release books two to six times a year and congregations would meet to sing through the latest music. The companies would send out quartets to promote their new books and they would sponsor “Singing schools” where students would go to learn the rudiments of music and have the opportunity to study voice and piano. As a teenager I was lucky enough to attend one of these schools in Nashville, TN. This school is still held every summer on the campus of Belmont University. We received instruction in theory, sight-singing, conducting, private piano, and arranging. And we sang - every day for four to six hours. The singing would sometimes last long into the night. This is also the first experience that I had with polyphonic music and counterpoint. It seems strange but the music of G.T. Speer and Luther Presley led me to Mendelssohn, Bach and Handel.

The prelude is James C. Moore’s Never Grow Old, a song that I have known for many years. This is probably his best known composition despite the fact that he has over 500 songs to his credit. The music paints a lovely picture of heave – as do many of these songs, as a land where we will never grow old. The piece has been recorded by hundreds of performers in the gospel field as well as artists like Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, and Patty Griffin.

The arrangement of I’ve Got That Old Time Religion In My Heart by Hurdist Milsap is a combination of an introduction that I learned from Rosa Nell Speer, an arrangement by Sidney Ryan Hicks and an ending by Stan Whitmire with a healthy dose of my own ideas throw in. This joyful piece is a perennial favorite at singings and with quartets and continues to be sung in churches throughout the South to this day.