Sing with the spirit and understanding

“Music should be rendered with the spirit and understanding; that the very soul and heart should enter into the song being sung.”

“One of the reasons that the Sacred Harp never grows old is: 1) Its author and composers had in its establishment the advancement of religion and not for the purpose of making money, as is too often the case in the publication of song books at the present time. 2) My father had good offers for the rights of the Sacred Harp but refused to accept any of them. It was feared that if he parted with it, its fate would be like that of many others, a mere money machine and the purpose for which it was composed and arranged would be lost.”

James L. “Jim” White, as quoted in A Brief History of the Sacred Harp by Joseph Stephen James (Douglasville, GA: New South Book and Job Print, 1904)