Some two dozen chairs are placed in a square in the center of the room.
Slowly they're filled with college students, professors, business owners and retirees, each ready to participate in a singing tradition that dates back nearly to the founding of the nation.
They're divided by pitch: altos face tenors, trebles face basses. After an opening prayer, a song leader moves to the center of the square and beats time with his or her arm. And soon a soul-stirring sound that is at once alluring and haunting surges through the room as their voices rise and merge.
"Fa sol sol la la fa sol la ... "
First they sing the notes, then the words from the Sacred Harp hymnal, which was first published in 1844.
"Will God forever cast us off? His wrath forever smoke against the people of his love, his little chosen flock."
There is no audience because everyone is a participant. There's no set program; singers get to select and lead their favorite songs.
And there are no instruments, save for the God-given human voice: the so-called sacred harp.
Every first, third and sometimes fifth Wednesday of the month, about 25 people gather at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on Ponce de Leon Avenue for sacred harp "singings." The spiritual tradition that has been around since the Revolutionary War, begun first in New England then spreading deep roots into the South. Atlanta was once a hub of scared harp singing, although it's mostly found is rural areas. At one time the largest sacred harp singing in the country, attracting thousands, was held here, according to Matt Hinton, an expert in sacred harp, also known as shape-note singing or "fa-sol-la" singing.
"I love the sound," said Beryl Bergquist, an immigration attorney, who has participated in singings for more than four years. "It's important to keep this tradition alive so that other generations are exposed to it. I consider it a worship experience. My theory is that people sing loudly because they are singing loudly to the Lord and they plan to be heard."
The singings at St. Paul's are organized by Hinton and his wife, Erica Hinton, producers of "Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp," a highly acclaimed documentary and CD on the scared harp tradition.
Matt Hinton, who teaches religion at Spelman College, first became interested in sacred harp as a teenager living in Atlanta. The first time he heard sacred harp was at Big Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Alpharetta. The singing was so loud, Hinton said, he thought the church was going to "explode."
"It completely blew my mind," said Hinton. "I was half afraid to walk in." The group was so small and its members so old, "I thought that this was some lost tribe."
Indeed, at one time there were concerns that sacred harp singing would ever fall silent. Many of the people singing were in their 70s and 80s and there appeared to be little interest among younger generations.
Several things happened, however. Hinton's documentary was released and the movie "Cold Mountain," which starred Jude Law and Nicole Kidman, prominently featured two songs by sacred harp singers.
In recent years, the tradition has also spread beyond the United States, with singings now held in the United Kingdom, Poland and Australia.
"There's just a wave of new interest and it's just remarkable how it's taken hold," said Buell Cobb, a sacred harp singer and author of "Sacred Harp: A Tradition and It's Music." "This was unimaginable 50 years ago."
Cobb, who is from Birmingham, has been singing sacred harp since the 1960s and recognizes a certain power and beauty specific to the songs.
"There's very strong, four-part a cappella harmony with beautiful melodies, melodic interest for each singing part and the full voice of the singers," he said.
One draw to sacred harp is the camaraderie from the communal singing, said Joseph E. Reed, who recently moved to Atlanta from Colorado. The physical set-up gives a "sense of equality and balance," said the 31-year-old musician and songwriter. "... There are no rules that say you have to be an excellent singer to be part of the group. You can sing out loud, full-voice and even if you're off, it's accepted in that style. It's a free style of singing."
The Hintons, who are working on other sacred harp projects, are determined to keep the tradition going. During the Wednesday singing, they invited their 2-1/2-year-old son, Eli, to lead a song, while his older sister, Anna, looked on.
Eli looked around nervously, then after prompting from his parents, raised his right arm to start.
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