Thanks to the hard work of several singers, there’s a new Bay Area Sacred Harp Web site now online: bayareafasola.wordpress.com.
Nice design, up-to-date information, and it will display very nicely on your smartphone.
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Month: January 2013
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Joy-filled
We had 15 singers at the Palo Alto local singing today: 4 tenors (2 men and 2 women), 3 trebles (2 men and 1 woman), 5 altos, and 3 basses. It was a nice mix of men and women, and a nice mix between the different parts (the altos weren’t as loud as you might expect, since two of the singers were quite new). Our sound really filled the small wood-lined room in which we sing.
At one point — I think it was right after we sang Mount Desert — someone pointed out the we kept choosing upbeat, joyous songs. I don’t know if it was the mix of the voices we had, or a shared mood, or what — but it was true: we sang 198 Green Street, 193 Huntington, 269 Bear Creek, 99 Gospel Trumpet, each joyful in its own way, so that I felt enveloped by the sound. Or maybe it was just the way we were singing today, for even 39 Detroit and 268 David’s Lamentation and 410 The Dying Californian sounded more joy-filled than I would have thought possible. We sang 122 All Is Well for someone who had died; that tune can be sung so that it’s a sad and mournful song, or it can be sung so that it’s a song of triumph, and today I thought it felt like the latter.
I came out of the singing in a fabulous mood.
In this blog post, I’ve embedded the following videos from the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing on 1 January 2013 in Healdsburg, California:
“Presente” followed by Susan leading 208; Peter leading 66; Ellen leading 284; Vicky leading 457; Mark leading 159; Jack leading 335; Alex leading 313b; taking the parting hand; closing prayer.
(I’ve now uploaded one video clip of every leader of whom I have video footage, so these will be the last batch of videos from the Ziegler Memorial Singing.)
In this blog post, I’ve embedded the following videos from the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing on 1 January 2013 in Healdsburg, California:
Matthew leading 453; Pat leading 535; Mary Ann and Jack leading 47t; David M. leading 148; Rebecca leading 460; Julian leading 328; Caroline leading 378t; Dan leading 84; Josh leading 267.
In this blog post, I’ve embedded the embedded the following videos from the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing on 1 January 2013 in Healdsburg, California::
Liora leading 406; Mary leading 441; Linda S. leading 58; Linnea leading 504; Joanne leading 472; Gabriel leading 228; Terry B. leading 192; Gretchen leading 565; Bob leading 122.
In this blog post, I’ve embedded the following videos from the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing on 1 January 2013 in Healdsburg, California:
David leading 182 Newburgh; Lindy leading 102 Fulfillment; Jennie leading 171 Exhortation; Joel leading 170 Exhilaration; Betty leading 147t Boylston; Terry M. leading 481 Novakoski; and Chris leading 68 Ortonville.
Videos from the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing on 1 January 2013 in Healdsburg, California. Update: 1/3/13: I’m consolidating a single day’s uploads into one blog post.
In this blog post, I’ve embedded the following videos: Linda D. leading 348t; Susan leading 412; Phil leading 198.
I’ll be processing and uploading video clips of tunes in the order I have them (i.e., in the order they were sung), and my hope is to get one video up for each singer who led a tune. However, I did not get video of the entire singing, so I can’t guarantee that I have videos of every leader — and some raw footage is not useable for various reasons, so the video of a given leader may appear later than expected.
Mary Ann leading no. 114, Saint’s Delight, at the Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing, 1 January 2013, at the Felta Schoolhouse in Healdsburg, California.
The Dominic Ciavonne Ziegler Memorial Singing exceeded expectations.
Attendance was a lot higher than hoped for. I was hoping 40 people would turn out, and I would have been happy with 30. The largest number I counted at any one time was 54 people singing, along with four children, one parent, and one dog playing on the lawn next to the Felta Schoolhouse. With people coming and going all day, I’d estimate that some 65 singers attended all or part of the singing.
People came from further away than expected. I figured it was going to be a small local singing, with half the singers would be from the Healdsburg local singing, and a smattering of singers from the Bay area. But in the end, we had singers from five Northern California local singings — Davis, Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and East Bay — as well as two out-of-state singers.
We all expected a good singing, but it was even better than I had expected. We had a big and very melodious tenor section, with good solid bass and alto sections; the treble section was a little sparse, but they made up in volume what they lacked in numbers. And having fifty singers in the Felta Schoolhouse sounded even better than I had thought it would — wood floor, walls, and ceiling made for a warm mellow sound. During lunch, I talked with one singer who had brought his guitar along. “It sounds like we’re singing inside this,” he said, pointing to his guitar.
And I didn’t expect to see many new singers, but we did indeed welcome several new singers to the Sacred harp sound and tradition. That was particularly nice, since Dominic introduced so many new singers to Sacred Harp singing.
All in all, a very good singing — a great way to remember a generous and talented singer! Over the next couple of months, I’ll be processing video and putting video clips online here. For now, I’ll include a few photos below the fold.