Fans keep sacred harp alive

By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The sound defies mere singing, pulsing
though the church sanctuary with sufficient force to put hell on
alert.

For three days this month singers from the United States, Canada
and Britain gathered to celebrate an Elizabethan-era form of sacred
choral music that took root and is preserved in the American
south.

Nearly 700 registered for the 32nd annual National Sacred Harp
Convention, which maintains the tradition of the a cappella singing
style in four-part harmony.

In the rural U.S. South Sacred Harp singing is a weekly
occurrence in a string of family churches.

“We went to a small wooden church with people who had been
singing together their whole lives and the sound was just
wonderful,” said Briton Judy Whiting, of her visit to Gum Pond,
Alabama.

Whiting, who had traveled from her home in West Yorkshire,
England for the event, was one of many international visitors.

Sacred Harp began in the singing schools in England in
Elizabethan times. Participants sit in a square with a hollow
center, facing each other, in groups separated by voice
range.