We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Sacred Harp Tunes with the Sixths Raised

by Judy Hauff

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
168 Cowper 01:31
7.
8.
71 Leander 02:15
9.
300 Calvary 01:47
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
296 Sardinia 02:01
20.
21.
181 Exit 02:21
22.
23.
24.
25.
201 Pilgrim 02:12
26.
27.
38b Windham 02:26
28.
29.
163t Morning 02:34

about

Dear Sacred Harp singers,

At my first Southern singing, which was in Georgia in 1985 at Hugh McGraw's Holly Springs Convention, I sat stunned much of the time, as there were very few people under the age of 50 or 60, the volume was deafening, many were singing "shutbook" though I couldn't begin to keep up, and I clearly heard quite a number of them raising the 6th tone in the natural minor scale.

I realized then that they had learned to sing these tunes, not from strictly reading notes in the book, as those accidentals aren't written in, but from the way their parents and grandparents sang them. I thus also realized that this was a very old aural tradition, as well as a written one, and probably could trace itself back to the folk music of their British Isles ancestors, where the raised 6th in the minor scale ("Dorian mode") was fairly common. Here in America, in any conventional music, it was pretty much unknown, so it really jumped out at me.

I found the sound unaccountably appealing, and as I hated to think that any part of the tradition as I found it might be disappearing through simple lack of exposure, I put together this little recording reflecting the raised 6th on any tunes where I've heard the Southern traditional singers raise it. As the singing traditions were usually passed down in certain families, it was by no means a universal characteristic, so at any given singing, you could hear some people doing it, and some not. As the old singers pass on, and the newer singers have learned their straight-ahead major and minor music scales from conventional modern music, this old scale is all but gone from the sound of Sacred Harp singing; some handful of young traditional singers still sing it, and able new singers who like it can sing it on command, but the average singer nowadays might be a little confused about how to go about raising it or not, what it sounds like, or, on learning it, don't like it at all. But I wrote "Wood Street" with those accidentals written in, counting on the traditional singers to just ignore them and sing them raised as usual, and the note-readers to observe them, to make sure all singers would sing what I wanted to hear.

So, anyway, this recording is just an "ear training" exposure to the sound of the "Dorian mode." And the listener may like it in one tune and not in another, or maybe not like it at all.

One caveat: in all cases, I actually heard some older traditional Southern singers raising the 6th tone on all the tunes that I've recorded here, with two exceptions: I never actually personally heard altos raise the 6th in "David's Lamentation," but often did hear the basses raising it, so inferred that I just came along too late to catch the altos doing it.

Also, I never thought about the altos raising it in "New Topia" until Shelbie Sheppard once said to me, "Well, I can't understand why the altos don't raise it (in New Topia),” so I did it on this recording. That raised tone is fairly prominent, however, in the tenor and treble parts on this tune.

For clarification, the raised 6th is always the "fa" directly above the "la" on the 5th tone of the natural minor scale, in other words, moving up the scale: la, mi, fa, sol, la, #FA, sol, la.

Cheers!
Judy Hauff

credits

released September 18, 2019

All noises made by Judy Hauff.

Photo of Judy Hauff by Jim Pfau.

This page created & maintained by Jacob Kiakahi.

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Judy Hauff Chicago, Illinois

contact / help

Contact Judy Hauff

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Judy Hauff, you may also like: