Shape-note music refers to a particular system of notation and part singing popularized in the nineteenth century through a series of songbooks, of which the "Sacred Harp," compiled in 1844, was one. Typically sung in four parts, these spirited folk-derived tunes are rough-hewn, having emerged from the English Colonies that were their soil; their subject matter, the sacred and the secular. These songs were sung by and for the people, though displaying a fine musical sensibility; the "Word of Mouth Chorus" (from Plainfield, Vermont) is in top form, singing "Greenwich," "The Better Land," "Northfield" and eighteen others. |
