It was interesting for me to learn about Hopewell’s contribution to the tradition of shape note singing. Hopewell, of course, is but a stone’s throw away from Princeton (if you have a good arm). “The Easy Instructor,” the very first book on the subject to appear in the United States, was distributed out of Hopewell by William Smith in 1801.
Smith and his co-compiler, William Little, employed a system that positioned musical notes on a traditional staff, using shapes in place of the standard oval heads. The shapes helped singers to determine relative pitches without having to wrangle with key signatures. Little and Smith did not claim credit for the invention of their system, which they attributed to John Connelly of Philadelphia, who is said to have developed it in the 1790s.
Though shape note singing disappeared from cities prior to the Civil War and from Northeastern and Midwestern communities in the decades following, the tradition was kept alive in rural areas of the American South. Modern interest was renewed with the folksong revival of the 1960s. The current culture is particularly robust, with passionate Sacred Harp singers known to travel great distances.
Shape note singing will return to Hopewell on Saturday, when a far-flung group of musical amateurs will gather at Hopewell Presbyterian Church to engage in the centuries-old tradition, with readings from “The Sacred Harp” and “The Shenandoah Harmony.” No prior knowledge of shape note singing is required, and everyone is welcome to attend.
The 4th Annual Central New Jersey All-Day Singing will include readings from “The Sacred Harp,” from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and “The Shenandoah Harmony,” from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. In between, there will be a potluck dinner.
“Everybody is welcome to grab a book and join in,” says Rachel Speer, a medical writer who has been shape note singing since 2001. “It’s a very participatory thing… People of all levels of musical ability, or lack thereof, are welcome. It’s just a place to have fun singing, not a place where we care about ‘getting it right.’ It’s not at all like a choir audition or rehearsal. There’s no performance. We just sing and eat.”
You can find out more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/08/classical_music_central_nj_all.html