Sacred Harp Bib

One of my friends from college is pregnant. So I made her baby a lovely bib. Both her and her husband are really into shape note singing (which is an American singing tradition that involves awesome harmonies and hymns and obsessive nerdiness---the most distinctive feature is that the notes on the musical staff have "shapes" that correspond to a syllable and that was used to help rural folks learn sight singing hundreds of years ago) so I decided to make a bib with shape notes for their kid.

Rachel, if you're reading this and you haven't figured out what the song is yet, stop. In fact, if you want to figure out what the song is and don't want it spoiled, stop now. Actually, I'll give ya'll some hints first...

Hint 1: It's from the Sacred Harp because I didn't have a copy of Northern Harmony (my other favorite shape note book) handy.

Hint 2: It's the tenor/melody line and it's the beginning of a song.

Hint 3: The key is actually not C major because I did not have room to put the key signature in.


The tune is 270 Confidence, and the words are "Away my unbelieving fear", which I thought were appropriate for a bib I guess? You can hear a great singing of the song here: [link] (it's the second song).