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Shape-note hymn: "Star in the East"
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2012
- An old American hymn from the Sacred Harp tradition of 'a capella' singing which flourished in the north eastern United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and spread to the southern states. The noble melody is anonymous but the text, which is a meditation on the Christmas story, is by Reginald Heber and was written in 1811:
Hail the blest morn! See the great Mediator
down from the regions of glory descend.
Shepherds go worship the babe in the manger;
lo! for his guard the bright angels attend.
Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
dawn on our darkness and lend us thine aid.
Star in the East, the horizon adorning,
guide where our infant Redeemer is laid.
Cold on his cradle the dew-drops are shining,
low lies His bed with the beasts of the stall.
Angels adore Him in slumber reclining,
wise men and shepherds before Him do fall.
Brightest and best, etc . . .
Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gifts would His favor secure.
Richer by far is the heart's adoration,
dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
Brightest and best, etc . . .
The cadence reminds me a lot of Eastern Orthodox chants.
Watch videos of Richard Rohr who speaks about the Early Christians ( 1st to 3rd centuries ) moved to the east ( Turkey , etc.) to maintain the early church's teachings. There is to be found Orthodoxy , which may be the Eastern Orthodox Chants to which you refer. I cqn imagine there is some connection ,
The oldest Christian tradition is the Orthodox tradition, and Orthodox hymnography has always maintained the use of human voices without instruments. The Orthodox Church is seeing a major revival in America and ancient hymns are being brought back to life with Appalachian and shape-note tonings, very much like this one. I implore everyone to come and see the beautiful harmony that the Orthodox Church is finding in America!
Shape note in American Orthodoxy? I'm all for it, being a combo of Appalachian and original Mayflower Yankee 🙂
It has an exquisite sound that to me sounds both mournful and joyous.
My favorite Epiphany/Nativity hymn (we Orthodox celebrate nativity on Jan. 6 when the Western world celebrates Epiphany)
Landed here after hearing a feature on shape note singing on National Public Radio this morning. This is something that they left out of the curriculum at Juilliard.... ;-0
What a wonderful, quintessentially American idea. The harmonies sound a lot like music in the old Greek modes- perhaps because it is written entirely without accidentals / chromatics?
Lovely performance. Thanks for posting. -- Jack
what a lovely example of old US FASOLA singing - and what lovely paintings to go with it !!
thank you and well done!!
Sacred Harp singing is a culture frozen in time and it is doing quite well all over the world!
I wouldn't say "frozen in time", I suspect there was some distortion over several centuries. But close. However, I wouldn't call this "Sacred Harp music". You'll just confuse people. Right harmony and type of tune, but wrong style of singing. And this particular tune isn't in either of the Sacred Harps (although the Cooper book has a similar one with the same lyrics).
Things that are frozen don't rot.
One thing you didn't mention: This tradition didn't just flourish in times past. It's going strong now--probably stronger than it ever has. It's a living tradition, and when we sing it's not a reenactment.
You are quite right of course. The singers in this particular performance regard it as a living tradition and there are many singing groups who perform this repertoire.
I wish they did it around here. I'd love to sing
@@jamezverusaum Go to fasola.org and check the list of singings; there might be one near you!
Going strong in the UK 🇬🇧👍
I landed here after looking up shape note singing in reference to Jefferson Airplane "Good Shepherd" . That was good, this is great. Thanks for posting
So glad you liked it! The melodies are modal/pentatonic - like traditional folk-song and Catholic plainsong, I think. Though very simple, they have presence, dignity and a sort of uncomplicated simplicity. Thanks for commenting.
This is NOT pentatonic. Pentatonic uses only do, re, mi, sol, la. No fa or ti. This has both fa and ti.
I can’t get over how beautiful this sounds
Beautiful, haunting!
An absolutely wonderful job - both because the music is so beautiful and because the visual images go with the music so well.
Beautiful.
Lovely
Wonderful! Transported me.
Thanks Jerry!
really wonderful thank you for posting
So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks.
Foretaste of Heaven!
Jean Ritchie recorded a solo version of a few of the verses in the Sixties; this performance has many more verses that I expected. I will check it against the Shenandoah Harmony version to see if those verses are printed there.
No se mucho o nada pero es hermoso
You're welcome, Peter. Glad you liked it.
Im pretty new to a lot of this but there is a Christmas book all very traditional songs, shape note. Just looked for it but dont see it. But this is in there. Don't worry. It's still out there.
Just found it. An American Christmas Harp
One of my favorite songs since I was a kid. I was very sad to discover that it isn't even in the Sacred Harp when I got into into singing shapenotes. It is in the Cooper book, but only one single line, and I'm not sure, but I think the tune is a bit different as well. I can't seem to find a recording of that version anywhere on UA-cam to find out.
One other thing I have to say, is this song sounds better sung more solemnly, maybe not so fine tuned, a little less sweet. Maybe I just think so because that is the way my father used to sing it to us around Christmas times. =)
God bless.
Indeed, it's very beautiful. Try searching for the Shenandoah Harmony "Star in the East" on UA-cam, which has the original shape-note arrangement and style. Other than the Shenandoah Harmony (published in 2012), it is in the Christian Harmony, a 7-shape book still mostly sung only in parts of the South. I think there's a video of that, too.
+Brian Harris Thanks. I was at a Shenandoah Harmony singing a few months ago, and found this song in the book by accident. So I called for this song when I got up to lead. =) Is the group singing this a shape-note group, or is it a "normal" choir singing a shape-note song in their style? I only ask because it doesn't seem to sound like other recordings I've heard of it, or the way it sounded when we did it at the sing. There is a church choir near here who sometimes gets together to sing songs from the Christian Harmony, even though none of them can really read the shapes (they can't sing the shapes, anyway, they don't know a "mi" from a "ti", although they can sing the lyrics. I've noticed that they sound different, like they are trying to sing the songs more the way they are used to singing songs, rather than the way they sound when being sung at shape-note sings. At least, I assume that's the reason. And this recording seems to sound a bit more "polished" than other ones, so I was just curious if that's the reason why. Of course, a song can sound very different depending on what the makeup of the group happens to be be, how many people are singing, and what the acoustics are like, so maybe that's the explanation?
justforever96 Sounds like this group is a more traditional choir that discovered the song and added it to their repertoire. It's originally from the Southern Harmony, from which many songs from the Sacred Harp came.
As to why it sounds different, well, there is a particular Sacred Harp-influenced style, and the arrangers of the Shenandoah Harmony sought to imitate that in their book. I guess you're aware of the Sacred Harp? Sacred Harp singing technique includes things like accenting certain syllables when singing them and pitching songs at the singers' convenience; some people will be familiar with a song and others won't, especially with lesser-used books like the Shenandoah, so they won't always sound polished on recordings.
This is one of my favorites as well.
The Christian Harmony's a great book, too. It's not too hard to learn the shapes - everything is explained in the rudiments at the front of the book. It takes a bit of time to get used to the shapes, but it becomes almost automatic.
Yes, choirs that sing shape-note repertoire typically don't sing in the shape-note style for a few reasons. One is that choir singing has a different aesthetic orientation towards the soft and sweet, whereas shape-note singing is full-voiced and powerful. Shape-note singing is for the singers, not for an audience. The main point is that this choir probably hasn't had the experience of learning about the tradition from shape-note singers or scholars. There are various aspects, such as accenting, pitching, beating time, unwritten conventions, community, etc., that just need to be absorbed by osmosis.
If they are interested, it would be of great benefit to them to attend some Sacred Harp singings, as the Christian Harmony style is nearly thr same, except that it is sung more slowly and the songs included tend toward the Gospel-influenced.
+justforever96 EDIT: I got a notification of this reply, but I thought it was on a different video, where the Watersons perform "The Good Old Way." Sorry if my reply didn't make sense. Fixed it.
I can also point out that the original Southern Harmony arrangement, also found in the Christian Harmony, is in 3 parts, whereas the Shenandoah added a 4th part, the alto. One more reason it sounds different.
can anyone tell me what is the name of the first painting in the video?
"Cranberry Pickers" by Eastman Johnson
I would love to buy a recording of this beautiful arrangement. Is it available somewhere?
The group singing are called Norumbega Harmony and I bought their disc, which contains many fine hymns, direct from them. Google their name and their site should appear.
Colin I did and the CD is on the way, thank you!
travelingsnail Wonderful! I hope you enjoy the rest of the disc.