Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp

AWAKE, MY SOUL: THE STORY OF THE SACRED HARP is the first feature documentary to explore the history, music, and traditions of Sacred Harp singing, the oldest distinctively American form of music. This haunting music has survived over 200 years tucked away from sight in the rural Deep South and performed mostly at community singing events, which can have up to 100 singers. The events, called “singings”, emphasize participation over consumption since they are not generally performed for an audience. Sacred Harp singers begin each song by intoning syllables which are represented by a specific “shapenote” in their hymnal. To the casual observer, it is some foreign, unintelligible language, but to the Sacred Harp singers, it is the key that unlocks mysteries: songs of both beauty and sorrow, of life and of death, songs that cause feet to stomp and tears to flow, often at the same time.

Sacred Harp is one of the open secrets of American music. If you have heard it at all, it may have been from the haunting choral music in the motion picture, Cold Mountain, or in a sample from such artists as Bruce Springsteen or M.I.A.. The past four decades particularly have seen remarkable growth of the tradition throughout other parts of America as well as another dozen countries, and particularly among young urbanites. The Sacred Harp hymnal, first published in Georgia in 1844 was revised and published in September 2025, the first revision in over 30 years.

AWAKE, MY SOUL: THE STORY OF THE SACRED HARP is as rousing and uplifting as the music itself. This is a newly remastered, updated and re-edited release.