sacred harp singing
Posted By Sherry on November 30, 2007
Last night we had more fun than any 13 people oughta have. Nine adventurous and brave singers from the worshipEnsemble came to our house for chili and cornbread and to experiment with sacred harp singing. David and Carol Sherwood, friends from church, learned to appreciate the strong a cappella vocal sound of harp singing while living in New England. They guided us through the sol-la-mi-fa’s of a number of traditional tunes. In case you’re wondering, the sacred “harp” is our voice, the instrument each one of us was given at birth.
I can’t say it’s my favorite sound, but I can say it’s unusual! We sat in a square, one part per side. The tenors always carry the melody. The idea is just to sing out and keep singing out without any change in dynamic. I won’t try to explain how the music works, but if you’re interested, you could look here.
Now the best part. Mauri recorded one of the songs we sang. You can listen if you want.
That. Was. Awesome. I vote that you put more music in your blog!
(I bet Mauri recorded this with his H4, right…?
)
I rather enjoyed that. The lack of dynamic is played down for me in that each part does fine at fitting in with the group as a whole. Pretty cool.
When’s the album coming out?
Hello Mauri and Sherrie!
Looking forward to a visit soon to “home.”
YOu two are awesome! I enjoyed perusing your blog and seeing the holiday festivities, the familiar faces and places, and your everyday experiences. I appreciate your quandry in IKEA. The two times I’ve been have been 5-6 hrs, and I feel resentful of the seductive food smells downstairs after going that many hours without eating.
Loved seeing your family and hearing the melodious harps of Friends. I miss it all so much! I told Seth I could taste homesickness in my mouth. There’s nothing like NW living. We get comments here when we meet people who say they knew that we weren’t from around here. We take it as a compliment.
Thanks for the moments.
Janelle, for Seth too
LOVED IT! I love the resonant hummm of the tenors. It was particularly interesting to listen to while watching the psychedelic tye-dye images that are the default visual setting on the Media Player….cool!
If you’re hooked, see
http://www.portlandsacredharp.org/schedule/index.htm
a thriving Sacred Harp scene in Portland and vicinity.