Performing at the Shenandoah Heritage Village at the Elk Run Meeting House
Come enjoy shape note singing at the Shenandoah Heritage Village!
Shape-note singing is a traditional musical practice that involves social singing from music books printed in shape notes. Shape notes are a variant system of Western musical notation whereby the note heads are printed in distinct shapes to indicate their scale degree and solmization syllable (fa, sol, la, etc.). Since 1801 shape notes have been associated with American sacred music, specifically with singing schools, with musical conventions, and with all-day gatherings known as “singings.”
Harmonia Sacra Singers
The Harmonia Sacra Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Joseph Funk, a Southern shaped-note hymnal publisher and singing school instructor. Funk (1778-1862) was the publisher of Harmonia Sacra, a hymnal still in use today in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He was a founder of the village of Singers Glen in Rockingham County, where his house still stands.
