Holy Apostles Episcopal Church is borrowing a page from history to give the community at large a chance to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

The church is sponsoring a shape-note singing workshop open to the public so people can learn how to sing based upon this old but effective musical method.

People who want to sing but have no musical training are encouraged to come - in fact, shape-note singing was devised with non-musicians in mind, said Liz Ringus, who is coordinating the workshop.

"It was designed for non-musicians," Ringus said. "We are trying to get the word around to churches and choirs but it's not limited to people in choirs."

The workshop will be led by Dr. Robert Kelley, a Lander University music professor. The workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Aug. 15 at the Holy Apostles parish hall.

The workshop is free and open to the public, but attendees are asked to register in advance at the church office.

For those who aren't familiar with shape-note singing, moviegoers who watched the 2003 Civil War film "Cold Mountain" with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law saw shape-note singing performed during the church scenes.

Shape-note singing assigns a different shape to each of the four syllables (fa, so, la, me) in the musical scale so people who couldn't read music could now sight-read the shapes and sing the scale even before learning the musical scale or letters, said Kelley.

The shape-note system of notation was invented by a Philadelphia shopkeeper, John Connelly, at the turn of the 19th century and first printed in 1801 in a book called "The Easy Instructor," he said.

Just as shape-note songbooks were gaining popularity, a movement to standardize music education and teach European classical music started, which quelled most shape-note singing in the Northern states, Kelley said.

However, out West and in the South, shape-note singing instruction was still evident. The camp meeting revivals in the South helped keep the musical form alive and also added the influence of black and white spirituals into its musical style, he said.

Ringus said she hopes the Barnwell County community will form a shape-note singing group from the participants that come to the workshop.

"What we are hoping from this is to start a group in the Midlands," she said.

The closest shape-note singing groups that hold monthly meetings that Ringus knows of are in Spartanburg and Savannah, she said.

Ringus said she was introduced to shape-note singing two years ago from someone in the dulcimer class she attends.
"Within 10 to 15 minutes, we got the hang of it," she said.

Ringus is not a formally trained musician and cannot read music, although she plays the dulcimer and sings in the Episcopal choir.

"It's called Sacred Harp singing because the "sacred harp" was considered the human voice, the instrument that God made," Ringus said.

Beside the teaching of the music, shape-note singing is meant as worship, Ringus said.

"There is no audience. It's not a performance. It's an act of worship - if you are there, you sing," she said.

The singers are arranged in a hollow square pattern, facing inward. The person leading the song stands in the center to keep time for the singers, she said.

Traditionally, there is no audience for shape-note singing events - everyone participates. Also, the person who selects the next song to sing is the one who gets into the center to lead it, Ringus said.

The songs are usually sung in either a waltz rhythm of 3/4th time or a march rhythm of 2/2 time, she said.

Most shape-note songs are either hymns, odes or anthems.

Church hymns praise God and are sung in harmony with the same words and rhythm. Odes are the most common type of secular songs in shape-note songbooks, although many odes are religious in nature. An anthem is a written piece taken directly from Scriptures and tends to be longer and more complex than a hymn, Kelley said.

Shape-note singing is not limited to one particular denomination, although its more prevalent in some, like the Primitive Baptist Church, said Kelley.

Kelley has been teaching shape-note singing for about a year and started a singing group in Swannanoa, N.C.
Kelley has a bachelor's degree in piano performance and music theory from Furman University and a doctorate in music theory from Florida State University.

"I hope that Barnwell becomes a flourishing shape-note singing community and I hope to be a part of the beginning of many other new singing groups in the future," he said.

For details on the shape-note singing workshop, call the Holy Apostles Episcopal Church office at (803) 259-3477. Those planning to attend the workshop are asked to register in advance and bring a dessert or appetizer to the event. The church will provide lunch.