This year’s Pacific Northwest Sacred Harp Convention — Washington (which for convenience I’ll call the Seattle convention) took place in the Sunset Hills Community Center in Seattle over the past two days, February 16 and 17. I was able to attend almost all of the Saturday session, and the last hour and a half of the Sunday session. Here are four brief vignettes of the convention as I experienced it:
(1) I stayed on the back bench of the bass section the whole time I was singing. I prefer sitting on the back bench, even though sometimes those of us on the back bench may sound a little more raggedy than the front bench singers. But the back bench was not raggedy at this convention. The whole bass section was strong, and that strength extended to the back bench, where were seated some very fine singers. I also like to sit as near to the altos as I can, and the alto section at this convention was also strong.
Where I sat turned out to be a good place to sit: the room brightened the sound and emphasized the higher notes, so that even though I was sitting at the back corner between a strong bass section and a strong alto section, I could hear the tenors and trebles clearly; I suspect I was sitting where the best sound was.
And this is the view from where I was sitting (click on the thumbnail below for a larger image):
