Sacred Harp

Have you seen the movie Cold Mountain? I can't say that I recommend it. It isn't that great. However, it tangles twice with my life. First, few realize that the movie was filmed in Romania. Second, there is a song it in that sparked a recent adventure with my dad. The song is sung in a church in the movie. The thing that made it stand out is that it is sung acappella (like my church) and they sang it with shape-notes (an old form of music reading). I later found out that the particular style of music used in the movie is called Sacred Harp. Apparently there are lots of Sacred Harp groups around the country that have regular meetings. They don't perform. They gather and sing just for the fun of it. This style has three distinctions: A) The songs are all acappella B) Generally they are hymns from the mid-1800s) They always sing shape-notes (fa, sol, la, and mi) for the first verse. All this is to say that my dad and I enjoyed an evening of singing with a Sacred Harp group in Portland. - www.wyattjourney.com

P.S. If you want to hear some examples, type "Sacred Harp" into the search feature of iTunes.