Our Second Sacred Harp Sing

In early June, my family and I attended our first Sacred Harp Sing. We (at least I) approached it with some trepidation. Somehow I had the idea that we would be the only Catholics among a bevy of Primitive Baptists, who might look askance at this Papist Invasion. Even the name of the venue reinforced this assumption: It was called Blessings, which I assumed meant that it was some sort of evangelical Christian bookstore.

Wrong.

My first intimation that this would not be exactly what I expected came as we ascended the stairs from the Blessings parking lot. The stair rail was festooned with multi-colored Tibetan prayer flags.

Ohhhhhkay.

Then there was the interior of the building itself. (It looked like a converted textile mill, by the way — cavernous, with lots of exposed brick. Don't know whether it actually was an ex-mill, but it had The Look.)

Anyway, the interior walls were painted rainbow colors and adorned with New Age aphorisms that came off like a cross between Jonathan Livingston Seagull and the Collected Wit and Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey.

Once again: Ohhhhhkay.

Then there were our fellow singers. As I pretty much expected, they were mostly Boomers, like my husband and me. But, as I hadn't expected, they were, well, not exactly fire-breathing backwoods Baptists. There was one Baptist lady, a sweet, pretty Southern belle with a lovely alto voice. But everyone else, it seemed, came from fairly leftish religious traditions. (At our second sing, we learned that Quakerism was well represented, with representation, also, from the Unitarian Universalist Association. But I'm getting ahead of myself....)

They are simply wonderful people, so I hope they will not mind if I observe that there was a certain New-Agey-Boomer-Hippie tinge to the gathering. As a Boomer myself, once as flower-childlike as they come, I can relate. Really I can. I still fondly hum those old Sixties standards about war, peace, and wearing flowers in one's hair in the streets of San Francisco. It's in my blood, so to speak.

But I must confess it came as a bit of Culture Shock when people who seemed as if they might be more at home at a Pete Seeger concert started belting out these 19th-century revivalist Christian hymns, with lyrics by the likes of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. Talk about your cognitive dissonance.

However, they sang lustily, and boy, could they ever sing. One gentleman in particular possessed a bass voice so rich and sonorous that I could have listened all evening.

My family and I were utterly lost. We tagged along as best we could, trying to master all the fa-so-la stuff and failing pretty much completely. But we had loads of fun, and we resolved then and there to attend regularly. (The sings occur the first Sunday evening of every month; there was a hiatus in July for summer vacation.)

Soooo....

Last Sunday evening, we attended our second Sacred Harp Sing — same time, same bat station. This time, we were psychologically prepared for the Tibetan prayer flags and the Oprah aphorisms. And we'd practiced some songs from the Sacred Harp songbook, so we were a teeny tad more prepared for the singing itself.

It was a blast. The two hours sped by before we knew it.

At a Sacred Harp Sing, the participants form a hollow square: tenors on one side, basses on another, altos on another, trebles on another. At our first Sing, I had foolishly taken my place among the altos (because that was the part I used to sing in church choir). This time around, I wised up. I figured it was hard enough trying to master shape-note singing without making it so much harder for myself by tackling one of the most difficult parts. So, I joined the tenors (men and women), who carry the melody. (My husband and sons, much wiser than I, had already aligned themselves with the tenors.)

Joining the tenors was the best decision I could have made. Much less stressful and ten tons easier. By the end of the evening, I was actually starting to "get my sea legs." I'm still a long, long way from anything approaching mastery, but at least I recognize the notes, more or less, and I don't miss too, too many of them. LOL!

We sang Northfield, Idumea, Evening Shade, Wondrous Love, Return Again, and several others I can't recall offhand. At my older son's behest, we tried tackling the complicated fuguing tune Ballstown, but we didn't get too far. Now my son's "homework" is to bone up on Ballstown before the next sing, so he can lead it. LOL...be careful what you wish for!

At the sweet Baptist lady's request, we ended with a round of Jesus Loves Me. Then we sang the traditional Sacred Harp closing song, Parting Hand.

All in all, a wonderful evening. May there be many more!

Sacred Harp CD Resources

As promised, here are Amazon.com links to CDs containing performances of Sacred Harp / Southern Harmony / Christian Harmony music:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Christmas/dp/B000000SM1/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215391732&sr=1-1

The link above is to An American Christmas by Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata. (Yes, I will learn how to do that Link Thing properly...but right now, for the sake of just getting this posted, I will go the amateurish route.) OK, An American Christmas is a pot pourri of different styles, and only a few songs are from the Sacred Harp / shape-note tradition. But those few gave my family and me our first exposure to shape-note singing. For this we will be forever grateful. Thank you, Joel Cohen!

http://www.amazon.com/Rivers-Delight-American-Sacred-Tradition/dp/B000005IVY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215392493&sr=1-1

The link above is to Rivers of Delight by the Word of Mouth Chorus. This is the Real Deal: songs from the Sacred Harp Songbook, performed in a much more authentic shape-note style. It is still very much a performance, so it's not as raw as genuine (church-based) shape-note singing. But, for many of us, it's about as authentic as we want to get. In my view, it's the perfect compromise between "overly slick" and "utterly raw." Your mileage may vary. :)

http://www.amazon.com/American-Angels/dp/B0001ADB4Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215392911&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Gloryland/dp/B000FWHVGE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215392911&sr=1-1

The links above are to two Anonymous 4 recordings: American Angels and Gloryland. Both CDs contain a mixture of shape-note songs, revivalist hymns, and other material. Anonymous 4 does not even pretend to be engaging in authentic shape-note singing. These are definitely performances, and the style is highly refined (although the singers do inject a bit of twang into their voices at times). But who cares? They sing like angels. Authenticity, schmenticity, say I.

http://www.amazon.com/The-American-Vocalist/dp/B000005E8P/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215393393&sr=1-1

The link above is to another gem from Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata: The American Vocalist. The material comes from a 19th-century New England songbook, sort of a Boston cousin to the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony. Yes, it's very polished and professional, but it's also perfectly lovely. The performance of "Star in the East" (a/k/a "Brightest and Best") is alone worth the purchase price, IMHO.

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Harp-Singing-Alabama-Singers/dp/B0000002UE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1215478467&sr=1-1

The link above is to the granddaddy of all authentic Sacred Harp recordings. This is as authentic as it gets, and it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea. But, once you get past the relatively crude sound quality (by today's standards) and the utter lack of polish or professionalism, you may come to appreciate the raw power and beauty of this heartfelt a capella singing. My favorite song on the CD is "Mear," although I think the two versions of "Lover of the Lord" are pretty powerul, too.

OK, enough for now. More posts to come, O vast public! And not all about Sacred Harp either: I've been planning a post on Celtic music for a while now; hope to get to it tomorrow or the next day.

Finally Getting Around to Doing Something With This Blog

Hello, world. I have finally summoned up the energy to do something with this blog. Aren't you thrilled? ;)

First, a note about the blog title. It's what the nibs call a Literary Allusion. It refers to a novel by P.G. Wodehouse entitled Leave It to Psmith. If you enjoy laughing your head off, I would recommend that you read this novel. It's one of Wodehouse's funniest and silliest. And it contains the juiciest send-up of modern poetry ever. Which is where "Across the pale parabola of joy" comes in. But I won't spoil it for you. Go to your local library or mega bookstore and get the novel itself. Then sit back and enjoy.

Now, about this blog. If even two people end up reading it, I will just about die of shock. But isn't the point of a blog to spout off into the black hole of cyberspace? Having an audience is irrelevant. Nice, but not strictly necessary. It would be lovely if a few kindred spirits were to find their way here via Mr. Google. But I'm not holding my breath.

About me, briefly. I'm originally from Boston, but now I live in rural North Carolina (a/k/a God's Country). I've been married to my soul-mate for 26 years. We have two handsome, strapping teenage boys, whom we homeschool. I'm a devout Catholic, and I plan to write a lot about Jesus and Mary and all that Catholic Stuff. I'm also the artsy-fartsy type, so I'll write some about art and opera and Jane Austen and such. I've been an advertising copywriter for nearly 28 years now. Right now I work as a catalog / e-commerce writer for a great big huge apparel company. I promise not to write about work. At least, not much.

My current passion is Sacred Harp singing (a/k/a "shape note"), so I'll probably write a lot about that. I guess you could say I have eclectic interests -- from the Sacred Heart to the Sacred Harp, so to speak -- but, to some extent, that's just part and parcel of being a Catholic here in the Bible Belt, I guess.

OK, more later.

Dianonymous