Traveling Home

[Stephen Fox]

I have my hymn picked out for FBC Ft Payne Alabama congregational singing in a few weeks

Whispering Hope.

I'm going loud with my request after the first 3, maybe Five

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/item/750- ... rp-singing

[Stephen Fox]

Haruo especially see my latest blog on the latest local sacred Harp singing. Robert Chambless 165 facebook pictures tell the best story.

[Rvaughn]

Stephen, did Robert get your pic on there? Which singing was it?

[Rvaughn]

Since Stephen invoked Robert Chambless's name, I thought I'd post this link to an article about him. He and his wife are great folks.
“Much More than the Songs”: The Sacred Harp Photographs of Robert Chambless

[Dave Roberts]

This has been a fascinating read from which I am learning a lot. Thanks.

[Haruo]

A week from now will be what is billed as the first Uppsala All Day Sacred Harp Singing in Uppsala, Sweden (but it will actually be a full weekend, so it's more like a "convention" than an "all-day"; I would call it a "double all-day". Perhaps in anticipation of this event, Swedish Radio has put out a very interesting article/set of interviews mostly I think with New England shapenoters. A lot of it's in Swedish (it's so cute how they say "Massachusetts"!) but enough is in English that I think it's well worth the listening even if (like me) your Swedish is "rusty, ya sure, ya betcha".

[Haruo]

Yesterday our copy of Mother Felicitas Curti's recent book, "The Chord of Longing: My Life as Atheist, Marxist, Mother, Nun" arrived. Mrs. H. has first dibs reading it, but I look forward eagerly to my turn, and to posting a review.

[Stephen Fox]

WAs a virgin experience for me in Jackson County. Sang Down to the River to Pray in a Sacred Harp setting for the first time.

Food was out of this world. Had great chats with singers who came down from Canada, Bard College in Upstate New York and Brown University. The Bard and Brown singers have sung in the company of Kiri Miller, whose book Traveling Home is the definitive work.

[Haruo]

Last night I received from Georgia a shapenote transcription of a tune from Fiji, which I hope to use in Sankta Harmonio. It's in the unusual meter 7.7.5.7.7.5; if you have any good texts in that meter to suggest, send 'em on down! Right now I'm on my way to a Shenandoah Harmony singing.

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

Thanks, Robert, I downloaded it. May even read it, as parts of it may be pertinent to what I'm trying to pull together in Sankta Harmonio.

[Stephen Fox]

That's a song from the Main Sacred Harp Book. Dogma for Adrian Rogers and Al Mohler view of women.

We sang two verses Saturday at Pine Grove and it registered with me for first time. I think there are six verses in all which pretty much cover the first 7 chapters of Genesis, The Whole Fall and Snake and Apple Deal.

[Haruo]

Went to the Morton All Day Shape Note singing last Saturday. They took (not common practice in my experience) and I quite randomly landed dead center. Mrs. H. didn't go because of the poor air quality, which would have exacerbated her asthma etc.

[Rvaughn]

While Stephen was at Lookout Mountain and Leland at Morton, we went to the Mississippi State Convention (4 books).

[Haruo]

Including The Colored Sacred Harp, I believe. I'd like to attend that one.

[Rvaughn]

No, that's part of the Alabama tradition, but the Colored Sacred Harp was never used in Mississippi. The four books used at the Mississippi State Convention (and all 4 at a few other Mississippi singings) are Denson Sacred Harp, Cooper Sacred Harp, J. L. White Sacred Harp, and the Christian Harmony.

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

Unfortunately, the loaners are few (some have walked off over the past several years), and used ones are pretty hard to come by as well.

[Haruo]

Hopefully before I make it down there I'll have a copy of my own. And since it's probably going to be a road trip, I won't have to pay an exorbitant surcharge for carrying four books instead of just one.

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

No, that announcement slipped by me. Thanks, Robert! I don't usually pay much attention to the White book, since I've never been to a singing where it was used, nor to electronic tunebooks, since I don't have a tablet suitable for use in the square. As arthritis encroaches I will probably want to look into that. But Karen will soon be ten bucks richer!

[James]

I just re-read the whole thread and down-loaded the dissertation mentioned. Now a few comments.

Black dirt south. Some people questioned my use of this term. I could not, at the time cite a reference as to its origin. It originally referred to a band of literal black fertile soil running through central Alabama, but now seems to refer to the heavy concentration of black folks who live on top of this soil. At least that is the way the CNN talking heads explained it during Alabama's hotly contested special election.

Looking quickly at the disertation in question through eyes blurred by Bell's Palsy, it appears that it is more about racism and folklore than about music and faith. There is some truth to this, but as long as we make everything about race, we cannot get past the race issue and just except that skin color is propably the least of our worries when we stand before God in final judgement. I have read that Sacred Harp would not exist were it not for black musicians. I have read that black spirituals would not exist without Sacred Harp. I have read little to suggest that there was probably a great deal of cross fetilization between the two. I do think I saw some reference to musical misinization in the dissertation.

[Stephen Fox]

Edmond. This is the one we sang 4th Saturday in August on Lookout Mtn. First time the words registered


http://www.sacredharpbremen.org/lieder/ ... 15-edmonds

[Stephen Fox]

Good singin. Small crowd. Good lunch.
Heard or the selection Lena registered with me for the first time. Came to find out it was chosen by a former Furman Math Instructor. Had delightful conversation with his wife at lunch who has a brother with a mobile home business in Gaffney. They are active in the Atlanta sacred harp network.