4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks

Subject: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 09:58 AM

After several months with very little Sacred Harp singing, I have just realized that I could be travelling the northeast each of the next 4 weekends for 1 or 2 day singings. I'm not the organizer for any of these so I'll give the bare bones in case any of you have thought about checking it out. An all day event is truly the best way to experience it. All of these are free & open to the public. Loaner books should be available. Pot luck lunches at noon.

Saturday March 10th and Sunday March 11th
Western Massachusetts Sacred Harp Singing Convention
9:30 am to 3:30 pm both days
at the Northampton Center for the Arts; 17 New South Street; Northampton, MA

SATURDAY MARCH 17 1000 am to 500 pm And SUNDAY MARCH 18 1230 pm to 430 pm
Keystone Convention Philadelphia Area
Saturday St. James United Church of Christ; Myrtle Avenue, Havertown Pennsylvania
Sunday Arch Street Presbyterian Church; 18th & Arch Streets, Center City Philadelphia
I don't have a web site for this. I think MaryMac should be able to further details.

Saturday March 24, 2001 (one day only for this one) 10am - 4 pm
VERMONT STATE SACRED HARP SINGING CONVENTION
Townshend Town Hall
Townshend Vermont Center Route 30, 16 miles north of Brattleboro

March 30-April 1, 2001
Potomac River Sacred Harp Convention, Washington, DC area
Friday 7:30 - 9:30 PM and Saturday 10:00 AM - 3:30 PM: The Parish Hall of the historic Pohick Church (ca. 1770), 9301 Richmond Highway, Lorton, Virginia
Sunday 10:00 AM - 3:30 PM: The Great Falls Grange, 9818 Georgetown Pike (Route 193), Great Falls, Virginia.

Singings are held throughout the country, throughout the year. Find more detials from the Online Singings Schedule I'll be at all except Potomac River, which conflicts with a family wedding.

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 10:28 AM

Oh to be in Noho..thanks, Burke, have fun!

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: wysiwyg
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 11:18 AM

Burke, how I wish I could go to any and all.

I'm kicking myself now for not getting some of the recordings, too, as I get the gospel tape library ready to send out. I couldn't discern which one was the most helpful for newbies, so I thoughtm, oh, I'll get one next time. Ooops!

~S~

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Jim Krause
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 12:37 PM

Well, for anyone in the midwest, there is an all day Sacred Harp sing in Ommha, March 31. It will be an all-day affair, with a potluck dinner.
Jim

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:13 PM

"Sacred Harp sing in Ommha"
Cool, is that like a Zen singing or something?

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 08:31 PM

I'm still looking for the Hawaiian Sacred Harp Singing. I used to be part of the Sacred Cow Harmogenizers in Seattle, and loved it.

Alofasola,
Mark

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 12:06 PM

Sacred Cow Harmogenizers? I'm not even going to ask.

I just noticed that I messed up the Vermont URL. Here it is.

It's hard to recommend a recording for newbies. We even have a hard time telling people which tunes to learn first. You tell them to learn a dozen & the next time they go to an all day singing 2 of those get called along with 60 others you didn't mention.

I'll be brave & make some suggestions. Ordering details for these can be found on the Sacred Harp Resources pages.

For learning: Recordings from 1965-1975 by the Sacred Harp Publishing Co. reissued on CDs and Cassettes. 3 CD's. My order of preference is "Sacred Harp Singing at the Old Country Church," "Fasola Is Here To Stay," then "Original Sacred Harp: Fasola Singing from the 1960s." All of these were recorded in a studio by traditional singers. You won't get the feel of a live convention, but the best singers of the time were there & all parts are solidly covered. They were created by traditional singers for their children & friends to learn from.

Leaving for lunch, more later if we don't close for snow.

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 09 Mar 01 - 05:31 PM

I love the recording "Rivers of Delight", by the Word of Mouth Chorus in Vermont. It has a couple of "arranged" songs, i.e., adding a part with each repetition, so may not be strictly kosher (so to speak!) but it's beautiful.
Burke, the Sacred Cow Harmogenizers are (were?) a group of shape note singers in Seattle who meet more or less regularly to sing and have a pot luck. When I belonged, in the mid to late 80s, we had one performance a year, at the Northwest Folklife Festival. We did a little bit of irreverent lyric modification, but mostly sang the songs straight, and had lots of fun. I miss the singing.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Mar 01 - 10:50 AM

Thanks, Burke!

Mark... so... how come you haven't started one there yet? *G* Aloha,

Susan

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: GUEST,Uncle Jaque in Maine
Date: 11 Mar 01 - 12:40 AM

Say, if you hear of one of those going down in the Sou'Western Maine area, let me know of it, won'tcha? Never been to one but they sure sound interesting!

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 05:20 PM

The weekend in Northampton was wonderful. There were 4 singers who joined us from Alabama & Georgia. During one of the breaks a couple were talking about how we did one tune so much better than they do at home. Has a lot to do with foot tapping. So many people wear soft soled shoes that you just can't hear it much. Boots are a definite plus. :-)

There was a group that met monthly in Portland, but the main organizer moved & I don't see it on the list of regular meetings. There's always some Sacred Harp done at NEFFA so if you get to it, check the sessions out. Lots of singing around Boston as well but they only have an all day convention every 3rd year when it's their turn for the New England convention. There's one in Lennoxville, Quebec in July, Brattleboro has another all day singing in June & the New England convention is in Vermont at the end of Sept. or early in October as well.

Susan, don't buy anything yet. I'm working on the idea of circulating the tapes the way you are with the gospel stuff. On the 3 tapes there are 88 tracks of 84 tunes, so only 4 duplicates. I need to give them a fresh listen because I'll want to add some of my own notes. Is anyone besides Susan interested?

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 12 Mar 01 - 10:41 PM

I'd love to hear them, Burke!

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 01:59 AM

I could include them in my project too, if that would be helpful, Burke. I have space left to do it either by including one yape in each 8-tape set or by making two sets of all Sacred Harp material.

Or if anyone would like to donate any to our project AND you send yours to people wanting just SH material-- that'd be something. Jeepman is pretty excited about my project and had offered some postage money. Maybe I should ask him to contact you, instead.

Either way, I do want to participate, but will you be including a book also? Or are they ALL there online?

I'm pleased to see others willing to try a traveling library. I had hoped it would happen, but I am surprised it has, so fast, before we have "results" to report.

I would like to opine though that given it all to decide all over again, in some ways I'd have preferred to be able to do my project in CD form. This was not an option for me because the point was to share what had piled up over the years... starting before CDs were ubiquitous. But starting something from scratch-- I'd be tempted to go with CDs, not tapes, except that people WILL make copies if you send good clear originals and I think that's not fair to the people who made these. "Steal Away" doesn't quite mean "Steal your ass off for Jesus!" *G*

Lot to think about, anyway.

Know what I think would be way cool-- if people who do these singings would gang up to buy CDs to give their local schools' choral programs. THAT would be HOT! Does this already happen?

Wow, I'm up late enough to be dreaming. Night all!

~Susan

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 06:27 PM

I just looked back at the gospel project & while I think one Sacred Harp tape in a set could make some sense, it really needs to come with the music & not just words. This would involve lots of copying & enlarge your mailing needs considerably.

I will include a book, a Beginners Guide (if I can find my copy), tapes of the 3 recordings I mentioned earlier, probably a couple more convention tapes, a minute book & information on where to order books & recordings. Most of the tapes will be originals, not copies & will come with their associated notes. I don't worry too much about folks making copies since these are non-commercial productions done more for love than money. Two of the convention tapes I'm thinking of are hard, or impossible to get hold of, so copying is the best alternative.

Administratively if it goes to the people on your routing, that would be easier for me. I'm not sure how much overlap of interest there is, though. Have you had a lot of takers on for the gospel tapes?

These tapes are my choices for people wanting to learn, not necessarily my favorites for just listening. They include a mix of tunes that are widely done & some I've heard infrequently. The tempos are almost uniformly moderate & often much slower than they'll be done in coventions (my reason to include some convention recordings) but easier to catch the parts.

Buy CDs to give their local schools' choral programs. THAT would be HOT! Does this already happen?

The experience of others is that there's not much point in doing this kind of thing. The teachers would have to already be interested & even at that they tend to have other things that are more important to them. The October 2000 issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom features a lesson plan for shape-note singing aimed at students in grades 3 to 8. I have no idea how well it's been received. To request one free copy of the issue, write to Smithsonian in Your Classroom, Arts and Industries Building 1163, Washington, DC 20560.

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 Mar 01 - 07:06 PM

I think what would make the most sense would be to include these materials in my project, but as a separate set that would travel intact. I'm not worried about the postage.

~S~

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Chocolate Pi
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 01:03 AM

Jumping on to this thread a bit late: everybody is invited to come visit me and around three hundred other singers for the Midwest Sacred Harp Convention! Chicago, IL, April 28th and 29th, dinner on the grounds, singing all day, etc.

Recommendation for CDs: the Lomax Southern Journey recordings, of which there are two or three dealing with SH and gospel; also, for sound on the web, my page here.

Chocolate Pi

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 11:28 AM

Aw, Pi, if only I could! Hometown too.

People who are interested in Burke's offer to lend the materials she's described, please see this thread:

GOSPEL TAPE LIBRARY OFFER

... which describes what's up with that and includes links to my e-mail in most of my posts, if you care to join in.

~Susan

Subject: RE: 4 Sacred Harp singings in 4 weeks
From: Burke
Date: 11 Apr 01 - 10:18 PM

Chocolate Pi, I was going to go to Chicago, but procrastinated on my ticket. It turns out the current deals need 21 instead of 14 day advance purchase, so I guess I won't make it after all. >:-(

The real reason to refesh this is because I just found the New World release of Lomax's White Spirituals from the Sacred Harp on the web. Most of Lomax's Southern Journey 9 is a re-release of this material.