I Belong to This Band, Hallelujah!
Community, Spirituality, and Tradition among Sacred Harp Singers
I Belong to This Band, Hallelujah!
Community, Spirituality, and Tradition among Sacred Harp Singers
The Sacred Harp choral singing tradition originated in the American South in the mid-nineteenth century, spread widely across the country, and continues to thrive today. Sacred Harp isn’t performed but participated in, ideally in large gatherings where, as the a cappella singers face each other around a hollow square, the massed voices take on a moving and almost physical power. I Belong to This Band, Hallelujah! is a vivid portrait of several Sacred Harp groups and an insightful exploration of how they manage to maintain a sense of community despite their members’ often profound differences.
Laura Clawson’s research took her to Alabama and Georgia, to Chicago and Minneapolis, and to Hollywood for a Sacred Harp performance at the Academy Awards, a potent symbol of the conflicting forces at play in the twenty-first-century incarnation of this old genre. Clawson finds that in order for Sacred Harp singers to maintain the bond forged by their love of music, they must grapple with a host of difficult issues, including how to maintain the authenticity of their tradition and how to carefully negotiate the tensions created by their disparate cultural, religious, and political beliefs.
224 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2011
Music: Ethnomusicology
Sociology: Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports, Urban and Rural Sociology
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
2 The South: Family and Community
3 The North: Tradition, Complications, and Change
4 Belief into Organization
5 Creating National Community
6 Going Hollywood
Conclusion
Notes Works Cited Index
Be the first to know
Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!