Sacred Harp Quotes

“My music teacher offered twittering madrigals and something about how, in Italy, in Italy, the oranges hang on the tree. He treated me - the humiliation of it - as a soprano.

These, by contrast, are the six elements of a Sacred Harp alto: rage, darkness, motherhood, earth, malice, and sex. Once you feel it, you can always do it. You know where to go for it, though it will cost you.”
― Mary Rose O'Reilley, The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd

“Singing is one of man's most wholesome activities. It is far better, one would think, for mankind to sing old-fogy songs than to remain silent, listen to "better" song, and let his God-sent gift of singing lapse into disuse”
― George Pullen Jackson, The Story of the Sacred Harp, 1844-1944