Pitching Sacred Harp Music
In Sacred Harp music, it is the custom to sing a song in a key chosen for the moment, rather than the one notated in the hymnbook. Pitching (also: keying) is the act of finding such a key. A person to whom this task has been entrusted is called a pitcher or keyer.
Read more about Pitching Sacred Harp Music: Why Pitchers Are Needed, The Pitcher's Task, Pitch Pipes, Tuning Forks, Etc., The Value of Skilled Pitchers, History
Famous quotes containing the words sacred, harp and/or music:
“As for the sacred Scriptures, or Bibles of mankind, who in this town can tell me even their titles? Most men do not know that any nation but the Hebrews have had a scripture.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He’s made a harp of her breast-bane,
Whose sound wad melt a heart of stane.
He’s ta’en three locks o’ her yellow hair,
And wi’ them strung his harp sae rare.”
—Unknown. Binnorie; or, The Two Sisters (l. 41–44)
“The further jazz moves away from the stark blue continuum and the collective realities of Afro-American and American life, the more it moves into academic concert-hall lifelessness, which can be replicated by any middle class showing off its music lessons.”
—Imamu Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)