Month: September 2012

Categories
Singing at home

Explaining to a new singer

We were talking to a new singer during the break this evening. She’s a visiting scholar from Sweden, she was curious about Sacred Harp singing and had some questions. Why do we sing at a pitch lower than the written pitch? My explanation is that most of our tenor singers really don’t have the range to sing the highest notes (many voices are really mid-range voices, not true tenors or sopranos), so we tend to sing songs between a second and a fourth below written pitch. She wanted to know where Sacred Harp singing fits into the wider spectrum of musical styles; this was a little more challenging to explain to someone who is not from the United States, but she knew about American bluegrass music, and got how Sacred Harp is related to bluegrass.

Then she wanted to know why we sing so loud. I guess one reason is that we like to sing loud, and another reason is that it’s actually easier to sing loudly than to sing softly, but the reason I gave was this:— this music was originally (and still is, for many singers) sacred music, and the loudness seems to me to come naturally as an expression of religious ecstasy. So as not to confuse the issue further, I did not go on to say that I used to get that same sense of religious ecstasy from punk rock concerts — but that was true for me, and it is why I like Shani’s characterization of Sacred Harp as the punk rock of choral music.

Categories
All-day singings & conventions

Clarissa leading no. 480 Redemption

Another video from the 2012 Palo Alto All-Day Singing: Clarissa leading no. 480 Redemption.

Categories
Singing at home

High ceilings

Tonight’s singing started out sounding quite good — lots of newcomers, but each section sounded solid. But part way into the evening, we began to slide out of tune with one another, and I could hear individual voices beginning to wobble; this began to happen as the class got louder. I’m increasingly convinced that the high ceilings in All Saints Chapel tend to push us to sing louder and louder as we try to hear our voices over other voices; when you sing louder and louder, eventually you pass the point where you can control your voice adequately. Not only that, but when there’s too much echo and reverberation, you can’t adequately hear what others are singing, and you tend to get out of tune and out of rhythm with other singers.

I mentioned this in passing to Rebecca at the break, and she said she had noticed something to that effect; she said it was especially noticeable since she had sung the day before at the San Francisco monthly singing, where there are low ceilings and you can hear other singers better. And perhaps I’ve become especially aware of the weakness of All Saints recently because the second Sunday Palo Alto singing is in such a good singing room; the contrast between the two singings makes me really notice the problems in Berkeley.

Categories
All-day singings & conventions

Minutes as submitted

Several singers asked for the minutes of the 2012 Palo Alto All-Day Singing — the minutes as submitted to the Minutes Book may be found here.

Categories
Singing at home

It’s different

We had eleven singers at this afternoon’s second Sunday Palo Alto practice singing. Of those eleven, one was singing Sacred Harp for the very first time, two had only come two or three times before, and three had been singing less than a year; in other words, half the class had been singing for less than a year.

It was a very pleasant singing. The three brand-new singers listened hard and sang when they could. There were three long-time Palo Alto singers who can hold a singing together no matter what: Terry, who can sing any part; Phil, who can sight read anything and who can pitch songs so that everyone sounds their best; and Peter, who can anchor the all-important bass part (for my money, the basses are more important than the tenors, because they keep the rhythm and provide the root of the harmony). The rest of us were in the middle somewhere: the three who have been singing less than a year are all pretty good singers by this point, and the other two of us are reasonably competent.

As we were singing, I couldn’t help noticing how different a practice singing is from an all-day singing or a convention. It’s so obvious how exciting and exuberant an all-day singing or convention can be that I almost don’t have to mention it: anyone who attended one knows how you can get picked up and carried away by the waves of sound. But a good local singing has its own quieter charms: I like the way you can really hear the individual quality of the best singers, and hear the way the best singers sing to and with each other. A good practice singing is also a supportive community where you can work on things like reading the notes with greater precision, hearing how your part interacts with each of the other parts, and using your voice to support other singers.

All this points up a big difference between traditional Southern singers and those of us in the northern/western urban revival. Traditional singers can learn to sing Sacred Harp from family and friends; they can also go to an all-day singing or convention nearly every weekend to hear some of the best singers. We revival singers learn to sing Sacred Harp in our practice singings, and many of us might attend only one or two all-day singings a year.

Because of this last point, some singers in the urban revival try to make every practice singing into a mini-all-day-singing. I think we would be better off recognizing that a practice singing is different from an all-day singing: a practice singing should sound great but should emphasize learning and becoming a better singer (i.e., practice singings are like rehearsals). And then on the other hand, we need more all-day singings in the urban revival: we need more venues where we can really show off our skills (i.e., all-day singings are like gigs).

Categories
Singing at home

Building community

On the drive home, Will and I were explaining to the two non-singers riding with us how the singing went. Will summed it up best when he said that musically it wasn’t the greatest experience, but we went a long way towards building community.

None of the people who regularly pitch for us came today. Erika did most of the pitching for us during the Other Book singing in the first hour, in many cases pitching songs that she had never seen before, a difficult task which she did quite well. But at first the class didn’t always give her the time to think through a pitch, and make necessary corrections. It was a variant of the problem the Berkeley singing has been struggling with for the past year: we have not been listening to each other, and paying close attention to all the sections, and all the singers.

Erika had to leave at the break. Suddenly leaders found themselves pitching their own songs, and discovering how hard it is. When you’re pitching, you really need everyone in the class to listen to you, waiting until you really have the pitch you want. We’ve gotten used to having very able pitching in Berkeley, so the class has the bad habit of latching onto a pitch, and sounding the chord, before the person pitching has actually settled on a pitch. Early in tonight’s singing this led to a certain amount of frustration: the person pitching would sound a tentative pitch, then rethink that pitch, but before he or she could sound the new pitch, the class was sounding the chord for the initial pitch.

But in the second half of the singing, after the break, the class began to relax and wait until the person pitching had really decided on a pitch. We started listening better — listening not just to the person pitching, but also listening to all the other sections while we were singing the notes, and then if we heard one or more sections struggling with the pitch, we paused until the person pitching could revise the pitch.

This, I think, was at the heart of the community building Will was talking about on the drive home: listening to one another, and working together so that we all sounded good.

Categories
Singing at home

Healdsburg

Carol and I drove up to the first Sunday Healdsburg singing today. About twenty singers came, including ten of us who drove up from the Bay area. It was a good turnout for Labor Day weekend.

The Healdsburg singing meets in the Old Felta Schoolhouse, and I had forgotten just how lovely is the sound of the room. Floor, ceiling, and walls are painted wood, with slate blackboards running along the length of one wall. The room is nearly square, with a ceiling that’s about ten feet high. The sound is bright and resonant, with a reverberation time that’s perhaps a little bit long — but not too long, for you can hear every part, and even every voice, clearly.

I suspect the sound of the room affected both the pitching, and the choice of songs. Hal was pitching at first, and he usually pitches a little lower than the customary pitch at the Berkeley singing (Berkeley singings tend to be pitched fairly high by Sacred Harp standards), but he gave pitches that were higher than usual for him. And I noticed people seemed to be choosing more songs in major keys. Even when we sang tunes in minor keys, they came out sounding cheerful. At one point, I led no. 183 Greenwich, which can sound vengeful and bitter in darker-sounding rooms, but in that room it sounded upbeat and friendly. It is a room that makes both our voices and the songs sound joyous.

The Healdsburg group has only been singing together for six months or so, but already they have developed some fine voices. Many of the Healdsburg people sing tenor, and the tenor bench was solid and dependable. The treble bench was all women, and it sounded clear and true; the altos were very solid. Apparently, their weakest section is the bass bench; they have one regular bass, and he was away this time. Hal and I were singing bass, and we convinced one of the men singing tenor that he should try out bass; he sang the second half with us, and it sounded to me like he’s really a bass.

Best of all, the Healdsburg singers are a very friendly, relaxed, musical bunch. There was not a trace of the competitiveness that you sometimes get in practice singings. They said they’re willing to take time to review parts to get a song right. And they really listen to each other.

I’m trying to talk the Healdsburg folks into hosting a New Year’s Day singing. In spite of the holidays, I bet we could turn out forty people on the afternoon of New Year’s Day; forty people in that room would sound absolutely glorious.