Knygatin Wrote:
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> calonlan Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > not a choir - the Sacred Harp was a singing
> method
> > - just plain folks getting together - very true
> > folk music, and ethnically authentic - of
> course
> > they sing Hymns - so what?
>
> I searched for The Sacred Harp on youtube. I got
> the impression of a rather ambitious religious
> choir.
> [
www.youtube.com]
> =related
There are hundreds of small gatherings all over the country, though mainly the south, I have never seen more than 40 people in one of the 4 groups around Pigeon Forge, Tennesee - In Texas there are a couple of dozen groups - they do have an annual gathering in Henderson Texas where I presume large numbers gather - it is, as the next writer observed, a hell of a lot of fun - The system uses "shape notes", in which each shape represents some note on the octave using the common "do, re, me..." designation - one person will be asked to "raise" a song - having made a choice, and designating the key note (do) - each line is sung separately - bass, tenor, alto,soprano - usually with lead line first which may be any of the four parts, though commonly the soprano line - as in "do - fa, sol-da-sol would be "amazing grace" first 5 notes - then they do all four parts using those sounds - then sing it in English - historically much easier way to sight read if learned first - and in the early days of American Education, most music programs in the public schools used this method - now the Kodaly Method is most commonly used for sight singing- those of you who watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" will remember the hand motions that indicated the notes of the alien signal - that was Kodaly - hand flat, hand vertical thumb up, hand flat, fingers bent down at the knuckle - shape notes evolved into the heavily Protestant south from the Roman and Anglican Chant notation - "O quae mutatio rerum" (Latin ending to old German student drinking song)
opening 5 notes -