Monday Music: I'm Going Home (Sacred Harp)

The National Sacred Harp Convention will be meeting this week, June 14-16 in Fultondale, Alabama. (For details, go here)

Sacred Harp is an old acapella style of singing that came to this country by way of the English settlers. It was taught to people by using shaped notes to designate, and a "fa-sol-la" method for vocalizing each note. It was kept alive in this country primarily by the Primitive Baptists in Appalachia.*

Did you know that sacred harp music is finding renewed interest in conventions across the United States and even in other countries? There are sacred harp events across the British Isles, Australia,  and Europe, even in Austria, Germany, and Poland.

Here is an old sacred harp melody, “I’m Going Home,” being sung at a Sacred Harp Convention in Ireland. 
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* See also Sacred Harp and the Sound of Eternal Essence.





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