Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp

Overview

AWAKE, MY SOUL: The Story of the Sacred Harp Film Screening Co-Presented with Bay Area Sacred Harp (BASH) AWAKE, MY SOUL: The Story of the Sacred Harp (2006/2025, 81 min.). Prod. & Dir. by Matt & Erica Hinton. “The spiritual connection is the important part of the singing that we do, and why we do this singing.” – David Lee. Hoboken, Georgia. “It’s almost like the ground is shaking under you” – Richard Ivey. Huntsville, Alabama. "Nothing is weirder than Sacred Harp" -NY Times. Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp is the first feature documentary to explore the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest distinctively American form of music. This haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural deep South and occurs mostly at community singing events, which typically include anywhere from a dozen to a couple of hundred singers. The events, called “singings”, emphasize participation over consumption since they are not generally performed for an audience. Sacred Harp singers begin each song by intoning syllables which are represented by specific “shapenotes” in their hymnal. To the casual observer, it is some foreign, unintelligible language, but to the Sacred Harp singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries: songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time. Introduction to the screening by Mark T. Godfrey of BASH.

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WHAT IS SACRED HARP SINGING?

Sacred Harp singing is a form of a cappella shape-note hymn singing that preserves some of the earliest distinctively American music. Sacred Harp has persisted for almost two centuries in the Deep South, particularly in the context of community singing events that emphasize participation over consumption, as it is not generally performed for an audience. The tradition uses shape notes, in which triangle, circle, square, and diamond shapenote heads are paired with the syllables fa, sol, la, and mi to represent the notes in the scale. Sacred Harp is one of the open secrets of American music. If you have heard it at all, it may have been from the haunting choral music in the motion picture, “Cold Mountain,” or in a sample from such artists as Bruce Springsteen or M.I.A.. The past four decades particularly have seen remarkable growth of the tradition throughout other parts of America as well as another dozen countries, and particularly among young urbanites. The Sacred Harp hymnal, first published in Georgia in 1844 was revised and published in September 2025, the first revision in over 30 years.

BASH bio:

Bay Area Sacred Harp (BASH) exists to promote Sacred Harp and shape note singing in the San Francisco Bay Area. BASH is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose specific purpose is to sing, teach, and raise awareness of community-based shape note music, particularly the Denson Sacred Harp, by holding small and large singings and engaging in other and community-based educational, training and outreach activities. BASH serves to uphold the Sacred Harp traditions of hospitality and inclusivity. All events are open to the public, free of charge, and require no prior experience or skill. [https://bayareasacredharp.org/](https://bayareasacredharp.org/ "https://bayareasacredharp.org/")

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Ticket Price: $10 advance / $15 at the door.