early acappella

One of my tasks on my job description is promoting congregational singing, including acappella. There is some interest in the popular media and film in an early Southern American style of singing called sacred harp, sometimes called shaped note singers. At the time of the Civil War most communities had groups singing these hymns.

The very first Mennonite hymnal produced in America came out of the Souderton area in 1803. Here's a clip of a tv-documentary. http://pitchfork.tv/week/awake-my-soul-the-story-of-the-sacred-harp/chapter-1.

I learned from this that the "sacred harp" refers to the human voice--each of us was born with an instrument--harp. And it is sacred.